The Peru Gazette

News Release 

 With COVID-19 emergencies poised to expire at federal, state level, Senator writes governor to lift mandate and help alleviate short staffing at hospitals and nursing homes

            This week, Senator Dan Stec (R,C-Queensbury) wrote to Governor Hochul, requesting she end the vaccine mandate on healthcare workers. President Biden recently announced the federal COVID-19 emergency would end on May 11. The state emergency is scheduled to end on March 1. With that in mind, Stec urged the governor to lift the mandate and help ease the severe staffing shortage at hospitals and nursing homes.

            “There has long been a staffing shortage in our hospitals and nursing homes, and that has only worsened because of the vaccine mandate on health care workers first instituted by Governor Cuomo and continued by Governor Hochul,” said Stec. “Nearly 34,000 trained, dedicated health care workers lost their jobs due to this mandate. While the need for this mandate was debatable during the height of the pandemic, it’s certainly no longer needed now.

“I’ve heard from hospitals and nursing homes in the 45th Senate District and they’ve made it clear that they need more workers,” he continued. “Lifting the vaccine mandate for health care workers would help provide immediate assistance to these facilities. That’s why I’ve written to Governor Hochul and asked her to show support to our local healthcare facilities and end this mandate.”