Mayor de Blasio says NYC will hold TICKER TAPE PARADE for frontline workers - as NewYork-Presbyterian hospital tells employees to get vaccine by September 1
NewYork-Presbyterian says it is requiring all of its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The hospital network said its 48,000 workers must receive two dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by September 1.
'As a leading health care organization, we believe it is essential to require vaccinations to protect our patients and ourselves against the threat of further harm from the pandemic and the possibility of more dangerous mutations,' CEO Dr Steven Corwin and CFO Laura Foresee wrote.
The majority of staff, 70 percent have been vaccinated, officials say, and workers have until August 1 to apply for a medical or religious exemption.
It comes as Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday that New York City will host a ticker tape parade next month to honor frontline workers.
NewYork-Presbyterian says it is requiring all of its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 1
Mayor Bill de Blasio also announced on Monday that New York City will host a ticker tape parade next month to honor 'Hometown Heroes' on New York City's Canyon of Heroes
NewYork-Presbyterian is the hospital system in New York to require its employees to get vaccinated but not the first in the country.
A federal judge recently threw out a lawsuit filed by employees of a Houston hospital system over its requirement that all of its staff be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Houston Methodist Hospital system suspended 178 employees without pay last week over their refusal to get vaccinated.
Of them, 117 sued seeking to overturn the requirement and over their suspension and threatened termination.
In a scathing ruling Saturday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston deemed lead plaintiff Jennifer Bridges' contention that the vaccines are 'experimental and dangerous' to be false and otherwise irrelevant.
He also found that her likening the vaccination requirement to the Nazis' forced medical experimentation on concentration camp captives during the Holocaust to be 'reprehensible.'
It came as as a U.S. federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by 117 workers at a Texas hospital over its requirement that they be vaccinated
Jennifer Bridges, a nurse and the lead plaintiff in the case, had argued that if she was fired for refusing a vaccine, it should be considered wrongful termination
Hughes also ruled that making vaccinations a condition of employment was not coercion, as Bridges contended.
'Methodist is trying to do their business of saving lives without giving them the COVID-19 virus,' Hughes wrote in a five-page decision. 'It is a choice made to keep staff, patients and their families safer.
'Bridges can freely choose to accept or refuse a COVID-19 vaccine; however, if she refuses, she will simply need to work somewhere else. If a worker refuses an assignment, changed office, earlier start time, or other directive, he may be properly fired. Every employment includes limits on the worker's behavior in exchange for remuneration. That is all part of the bargain,' Hughes concluded.
The judge said Texas law only protected employees from being fired for refusing to commit an illegal act and that the requirement is consistent with public policy.
Meanwhile, New York City announced it will be holding a ticker tape parade next month to celebrate essential workers.
'I said the first parade back, the first true large parade in New York City will be one to celebrate the heroes of the fight against COVID, our health care heroes who were extraordinary and need to be remembered for the ages, our first responders, our essential workers, the people who kept us alive, that people who kept the city going no matter what,' de Blasio said during a press conference on Monday.
'We are going to hold a parade to honor them, to thank them, to celebrate them,' he continued.
He added that the July 7 date was chosen because it follows the city's official reopening day of July 1 as well as July 4 celebrations.
The mayor said the parade will have floats with frontline workers, first responders, public transit workers, grocery store workers, teachers and more.
The July 7 date was chosen because it follows the city's official reopening day of July 1 as well as July 4 celebrations.
'It's time for the parade to celebrate our hometown heroes,' de Blasio said.
It will be 'a parade you will remember for the rest of your life.'
The mayor said the parade will have floats with frontline workers, first responders, public transit workers, grocery store workers, teachers and more.
The seven-day rolling average of cases has rapidly declined over the past month by 74 percent from 797 per day to 207, city health department data show.
Average deaths have also dropped from 28 to five, representing an 82 percent decline.
As of Monday, 53.5 percent of New York City residents have had at least one vaccine dose and 46.8 percent are fully vaccinate.
'We're always going to remember the pain and the tragedy of Covid,' de Blasio said.
'No one is going to ever forget those we lost and what families are still going through. But we need a day to celebrate the heroism of everyday New Yorkers.'
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