McKee Backs Off October 1 Deadline for RI Healthcare Workers’ Vaccinations, Draws Criticism
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee’s administration announced on Tuesday it was backing off its hard deadline of requiring all healthcare and related licensed workers to be vaccinated by October 1.
McKee and the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) said instead they now have “an enforcement strategy for Rhode Island’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement for healthcare workers. The enforcement strategy will help safeguard patients, residents, and staff by holding health professionals and facilities accountable to the October 1 vaccination requirement, while also preventing disruptions to care in Rhode Island as healthcare facilities work toward full compliance.”
Healthcare workers have been prioritized to receive vaccination since December of 2020.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTThe decision by McKee’s administration continues to allow the transmission of COVID from unvaccinated healthcare workers to patients and from patients to unvaccinated healthcare workers.
Presently, Rhode Island has a “high” transmission rate of 218 per 100,000 in a 7-day period — more than twice the state’s action level.
Last week, a GoLocal review of some of the latest RIDOH data showed that being fully vaccinated is incredibly important to lessen the chance of death from COVID, but 15 fully vaccinated Rhode Islanders have died of the virus.
In addition, another 20 fully vaccinated Rhode Islanders have died with COVID.
"We are able to report data on vaccination breakthrough fatalities cumulatively. We have had 35 people who were fully vaccinated and then later contracted COVID-19 and passed away. However, COVID-19 was only considered the leading cause of death in 15 of those cases. This is of the more than 630,000 Rhode Islanders fully vaccinated," said Joseph Wendelken, public information officer at the Department of Health.
The rollback by McKee's administration for 30 days or more drew harsh criticism.
Magaziner Slams McKee
“This is a step in the wrong direction. The McKee Administration should be doing more to get Rhode Islanders vaccinated; not less. Everyone has the right to expect safe healthcare facilities and every healthcare worker should get vaccinated," said RI General Treasurer Seth Magaziner -- who is running against McKee in the Democratic primary in the 2022 governor's race.
"I continue to be frustrated that the McKee Administration has ignored our calls to expand the vaccine mandate to teachers and school employees as several other states have done, and as public health experts and national teachers unions recommend. Real leaders follow the science. Instead, Governor McKee has consistently downplayed rising case numbers and is failing to take reasonable steps to beat the pandemic,” added Magaziner.
The McKee administration defended the decision.
“The vast majority of healthcare workers have continued to do that by already getting vaccinated against COVID-19,” said McKee. “The enforcement strategy for our COVID-19 vaccination requirement for healthcare workers provides clear structure and guidance to facilities that are working to get the remaining few who are not vaccinated yet, while ensuring that all Rhode Islanders still have access to high-quality care in facilities throughout the state.”
“This enforcement strategy is not intended to be an extension or exemption of the original vaccination requirement,” said Director of Health Nicole Alexander-Scott, MD, MPH. “On October 1, anyone that is non-compliant is subject to enforcement. If there is a risk to quality of care and an unvaccinated worker must continue to work beyond October 1 to mitigate that risk, the employer has 30 days to ensure that role is fulfilled by a fully vaccinated healthcare worker.”
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