Four hospitals in Orange and Sullivan now demand visitors show proof of vaccination

Four hospitals in Orange and Sullivan counties on Monday began requiring that all visitors present proof they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before entering, with certain exceptions such as when a parent visits a hospitalized child.

Three of the facilities belong to Garnet Health, which operates the former Orange Regional Medical Center in the town of Wallkill and the former Catskill Regional Medical Center campuses in Harris and Callicoon. Garnet set the new visitation requirement at all three sites "due to rising cases of COVID-19 in our community," spokesman Rob Lee told the Times Herald-Record on Monday.

The fourth local hospital requiring visitors show proof of vaccination except in certain situations is Montefiore St. Luke's Cornwall Hospital in the city of Newburgh. Both Garnet and St. Luke's announced their new policies on Facebook.

Kate Dabroski, a spokeswoman for Montefiore St. Luke’s Cornwall, said the hospital imposed the mandate "with the utmost protection of our patients, visitors and staff in mind," based on guidance from federal, state and county health officials.

 "As you know, the incidence of COVID-19 in our community and throughout the nation continues to increase at an alarming rate and we, as your community hospital and a leader in healthcare, feel it necessary to do everything possible to prevent further spread of this virus," Dabroski said by email.

The majority of adults in both Orange and Sullivan are fully vaccinated and could satisfy the new visiting requirement. But both counties still have substantial numbers of unvaccinated residents: among those 18 and older, 68% in Orange and 60% in Sullivan are fully vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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After dwindling to low numbers by July, new COVID cases, hospitalizations and deaths have risen as the highly contagious Delta variant swept through the mid-Hudson Valley region, with more serious consequences for the unvaccinated.

According to state data, at least 42 mid-Hudson residents died from COVID in the first 11 days of September. The death tolls for each of seven counties over that period were: Westchester, 13; Dutchess, 13; Orange, 5; Ulster, 5; Rockland, 3; Sullivan, 2; and Putnam, 1.

New infections keep coming. On Saturday alone, another 673 residents of those counties tested positive for the virus. The counts were: Westchester, 150; Orange, 146; Dutchess; 122; Rockland, 121; Ulster, 96; Sullivan, 24; and Putnam, 14.

Other hospitals in the region are requiring visitors either show proof of vaccination or a negative test result for COVID, taken no more than five days before visiting.

That is the policy at hospitals in the Westchester Medical Center Health Network, which includes St. Anthony's Community Hospital in Warwick; Bon Secours Community Hospital in Port Jervis; and the two HealthAlliance campuses in Kingston.

Garnet now requires visitors show their vaccination card or the Excelsior Pass - the digital version they can retrieve on their smart phones - when they arrive and present identification for a visitor's pass. It grants exceptions for parents who are visiting their kids and anyone visiting patients who are dying, have special needs or getting obstetrics care.

St. Luke's listed similar exceptions and said its chief nursing officer and chief medical officer could allow others "on a case by case basis."

People are considered fully vaccinated against COVID two weeks after getting the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine or after the single shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Hospitals fight pandemic from within

The visitation requirement comes as hospitals are pushing to get more of their own staff members vaccinated to comply with a state order that all health care workers get at least their first vaccine dose by Sept. 27. Those who don't and have gotten no exemptions for medical reasons will lose their jobs.

Garnet last week began posting images on Facebook of individual employees who delivered pro-vaccine statements, apparently in hopes of persuading holdouts on the staff. One food service worker said he initially resisted the shot but realized "it takes everyone to fight" a pandemic. A nurse said in another post that she got vaccinated because "it was the right thing to do if we ever want to see the end of this virus."

On Monday, Garnet posted a video of another employee sharing her own sad experience with COVID and urging co-workers to get vaccinated. She said she had been airlifted to an Albany hospital and spent a month on a ventilator because of the virus. When she returned, her 28-year-old son had caught COVID and was already in intensive care. He later died.

"That's my 'why,'" she said. "You should get vaccinated."

As of Sept. 7, 82% of Garnet's Orange County workers and 65% and 66% of employees at its two Sullivan campuses were fully vaccinated, according to state data. At St. Luke's, 73% of workers were fully vaccinated.

cmckenna@th-record.com