NY to state employees: Vaccine or tests

New York will ALBANY, N.Y. — require all state employees to get vaccinated against

the coronavirus by Labor Day or undergo weekly tests for COVID-19, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.

“It’s smart, it’s fair and it’s in everyone’s interest,” Cuomo said in a Zoom call with the nonprofit Association for a Better New York.

In mandating either the shots, or frequent testing for government workers, Cuomo is following on the heels of California and New York City, which announced similar policies for employees earlier this week. The governor called on local governments across New York to follow suit.

New York, like other states, has seen a rising number of coronavirus cases linked to the Delta variant. New infections have climbed more than 400% since the end of June, and hospitalizations have jumped 68% over the past two weeks.

“What we’re seeing is a pandemic among those unvaccinated people, but it affects everyone,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo said COVID-19 vaccines would be mandatory for “front-line” workers at state-owned hospitals. Those employees would not be able to avoid inoculations by undergoing weekly virus testing. The state runs hospitals in Syracuse and New York City and on Long Island.

New York state regulations already require hospital workers to be vaccinated against measles and rubella.

There about 256,500 state employees, according to New York state payroll system data. It was not immediately clear if the mandate would cover employees outside of executive agencies, like state court workers.

The Democrat said his administration still needed to speak with union officials about how to implement the policy.