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With nearly 80 percent of hospital staff vaccinated, including within the Yale-New Haven Health, Trinity Health, and Hartford Healthcare systems, the other 20 percent could be out of a job come Thursday, Sept. 30 if they don’t adhere to mandates put in place at several hospitals.
Reports found that approximately one in four hospital workers were not vaccinated by the end of May, with some facilities reporting that less than half of their employees have received a shot.
The mandates are the latest measure being taken to encourage hospital workers to go out and get a shot in the arm as soon as possible, particularly as the Delta variant continues spreading and causing new cases.
According to the latest data from health officials, the Delta variant has become the dominant COVID-19 strain in Connecticut, accounting for more than 80 percent of new cases.
Karl Minges the interim Dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven noted to wtnh.com that “to have a healthcare workforce only three-fourths vaccinated it isn’t so helpful, and it also urges the development of new variants that could even be more transmissible than perhaps the Delta variant.”
After sitting well below 1 percent for weeks as the vaccine was first rolled out, the positive COVID-19 infection rate in Connecticut is approaching 2.25 percent, with the number of patients hospitalized with the virus climbing to 66 statewide.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont noted that after seeing a dip in the number of people getting vaccinated recently, that there has been a 7 percent rise week-to-week, and more than 50 percent of children between the ages of 12 and 15 have now been vaccinated.
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