Tens of thousands of home healthcare workers in New York who refuse to get a COVID-19 vaccine are facing being fired as the state's new mandate goes into effect on Friday.
About 250,000 people who work at assisted living homes, hospice care, treatment centers and AIDS home care programs, have until midnight to prove they have received at least one dose of the vaccine or risk termination.
Some industry representatives say as many as one in five still haven't gotten their first shot - meaning 50,000 could lose their jobs.
The mandate, put in place by Gov Kathy Hochul, comes on top of another mandate, implemented last month, that covered hospital and nursing home workers.
A new Covid vaccine mandate goes into effect in New York on Friday for home health care workers such as employees of hospice care and treatment centers with employees having until midnight to prove they have been vaccinated or risk being fired. Pictured: Monique Iskarous (left) a dentist receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Anaheim January 2021
Some estimates have suggested that as many 50,000 out of the state's 250,000 workers have been immunized. The vaccination rate temporarily increased after the mandate went into effect for hospital workers
New York has kept up-to-date data on how many hospital and nursing home workers have been vaccinated since the start of the rollout.
As of Friday, 89 percent of hospital employees and 97 percent of those working in long-term care facilities have been immunized
But state officials have not been closely tracking the vaccination status of home health aides.
This means it is not clear how far New York is from reaching 100 percent.
It was unclear early Friday whether home health agencies were having to suspend or lay off large
