Today, the New York State Department of Health announced that it will be repealing the COVID-19 vaccination mandate that had been required for healthcare workers per Department regulations since 2021. This repeal will apply to covered workers in entities licensed by Public Health Law articles 28, 36 (such as LHCSAs), and 40. (As a reminder, the vaccine was not mandated for personal assistants in CDPAP, making recruitment and retention much easier for CDPAP over the last two years).
According to the Department’s announcement, formal action by the Public Health and Health Planning Council will be required to officially repeal the vaccination requirement, and the Council does not meet again until the fall. Nonetheless, the Department will be issuing a Dear Administrator Letter (“DAL”) either today or soon after today that will, at least administratively, rescind the COVID vaccine mandate and abate enforcement action related to the vaccine mandate. Thus, relief from this requirement should be relatively immediate for providers.
We will await the issuance of the formal DAL from the State and provide more updates as they become available. In the meantime, clients are encouraged to reach out to their counsel if they have questions about the legal implications of this development.