Governor Cuomo announced today that all healthcare workers in New York State, “including staff at hospitals and long-term care facilities (LTCF), including nursing homes, adult care, and other congregate care settings, will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Monday, September 27.” The State Department of Health will issue Section 16 Orders requiring all hospital, LTCF, and nursing homes to develop and implement a policy mandating employee vaccinations, with limited exceptions for those with religious or medical reasons.
The announcement does not specifically state that home care workers will be covered by this requirement, and the Governor’s Press Release suggests that the requirement will only apply to healthcare workers that work in congregate care settings. However, the vaccination requirement generally and broadly applies to “all healthcare workers,” which could be interpreted to include home care workers. We trust that confirmation and clarification as to the applicability of this vaccination requirement to home care workers (including CDPAP) will be provided soon. In either case, home care workers that work in facilities, such as nursing homes, will almost surely be covered by this requirement.
We will provide more information about this development as it becomes available.