Upstate New York hospitals are suffering from a wave of new COVID-19 cases, but they don’t have the staff to handle them all. The New York Times spoke to multiple hospital executives and doctors in the area, many of whom say hospital workers are leaving the field over a mixture of burnout and a refusal to be vaccinated. Meanwhile, Gov. Kathy Hochul said cases are up 150 percent in the region. According to official estimates, about 33,000 hospital workers—or 3 percent of the workforce—left due to a state vaccine mandate, leaving doctors without the support they needed to handle the surge. “It’s so bad in this area,” Dr. Jeremy Di Bari, who sees patients at a hospital and multiple urgent care centers in Warren County, told the Times. “I don’t think it’s going to get better. I hope it won’t get much worse.”
