Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced on Wednesday all nursing home and hospital staff will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
All staff at the state’s 227 nursing homes and at Maryland hospitals must get their first COVID-19 vaccine shot by Sept. 1 or submit to ongoing COVID-19 screening and testing, the Republican governor said, noting that nursing homes became “ground zero” for the coronavirus pandemic last spring.
“We are concerned that the delta variant has led to an increase in infections among staff at nursing homes, which has been a consistent source of outbreaks in these facilities throughout the pandemic,” said Mr. Hogan during a briefing. “Our main focus has always been and continues to be reducing hospitalizations and deaths, particularly among our most vulnerable Marylanders.”
About 79% of all Maryland nursing home staff have already been vaccinated, and 18 facilities are averaging 95% vaccination rates or higher, according to Mr. Hogan. However, the nursing homes with the lowest vaccination among staff are averaging a 48.9% rate, with the lowest one at 40%, he said, which he described as “unacceptable” and “endangering the lives of nursing home residents.”
The governor warned the state will be taking tougher enforcement actions such as doubling fines and raising civil penalties against nursing homes that don’t comply with state health department protocols or repeatedly fail to report vaccination data.
Maryland is also launching a new statewide antibody testing program that will initially include 500 nursing home residents to collect data on their levels of immunity and the need for booster shots.
Meanwhile, some of the state’s largest hospital systems including Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical System are already mandating vaccines for all staff.
“But not every hospital has taken action,” Mr. Hogan pointed out. “And some continue to have far too many unvaccinated health care workers, needlessly exposing their vulnerable patients in their hospitals to COVID-19 and the delta variant. Eight full months after vaccines have been available to health care workers, this is simply not acceptable.”
The Maryland Hospital Association in June reported that about 70% of all hospital employees in the state were fully vaccinated. Dr. Mohan Suntha, CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System, on Wednesday said the health care system has about 75% of its staff vaccinated, a rate he reported as steadily growing.
District officials on Monday said they will require all health care workers to get their COVID-19 vaccines by the end of next month.
All health care workers in the city must get their first dose of either the two-shot Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by Sept. 30, D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt announced during a briefing. The requirement applies to all certified and registered health professionals, EMS providers such as paramedics, and all unlicensed health care workers, including personal care aides and patient care technicians.
Jacqueline Bowens, president and CEO of D.C. Hospital Association, said that all hospitals in June announced they were moving toward mandating vaccinations for their employees, regardless if they were health care workers or not.
“Each hospital on their own will develop what their compliance may be for those people who are not vaccinated during this period of time, and that certainly testing would be included as part of that as an option,” she said at Monday’s briefing. “So we certainly intend to be consistent with that for all of our employees.”
D.C. Health said once a COVID-19 vaccine receives full regulatory approval, then the city agency has the authority to revoke the license, certification or registration of any health professional who does not get vaccinated and who is not exempt for medical or religious reasons.
In Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam has not instituted a mandate for state nursing home or health care staff specifically. However, the governor earlier this month announced vaccine and testing requirements for state employees, which begin Sept. 1 and will affect about 122,000 workers. The District and Maryland are mandating vaccines or regular testing for government employees as well.
Health, The New York Today
