Employers will be required to grant workers paid time off if they need to recover from side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday.
“You won’t miss a day’s pay because of getting a vaccine,” Cuomo told New Yorkers at a press conference in Grand Central Terminal.
“We’re trying to knock down any obstacles to vaccinations.”
The state’s Department of Labor will issue guidance Thursday that instructs businesses that side effects from the shots are covered under the paid sick leave law, the governor said.
“You get time off to get the dose,” said Cuomo. “If you’re one of the very few that happens to get side effects from the vaccine, that’s a paid sick day, so that won’t cost you money either.”
Cuomo said that while the side effects are most often minimal, a recent study found some Americans are skipping out on getting a jab because they fear they will miss out on some of their paycheck while recovering.
The Kaiser Family Foundation study, conducted in April and published May 6, found that 48 percent of unvaccinated Americans are worried they may have to skip work if the shot produces side effects.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said that it is an employer’s responsibility to pay for any time off an employee takes to deal with COVID-19 vaccine side effects. Stephen Yang“I understand the fears expressed in that study, but they’re not reality based,” Cuomo insisted.
Also Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that seniors 75 years and older and anyone with a disability will now be eligible to get vaccinated at home through the city’s program for the homebound.
“If you’re 75 or older and you haven’t yet been vaccinated, or you happen to be disabled and you haven’t yet been vaccinated, and you’d like the vaccination team to come straight to your home, straight to your apartment, we’ll do that now,” said the mayor.
The city has administered jabs to more than 9,000 homebound New Yorkers.
