Australian State Faces Hospital Staffing Crisis as Mandatory Vaccination Deadline Looms

Clinical staff draw up AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines at the Claremont Showgrounds Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic in Perth, Australia on May 3, 2021. Paul Kane/Getty Images

The New South Wales (NSW) health system could lose about one in ten staff, who have not received a COVID-19 jab, as the vaccination deadline inches closer.

NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant announced yesterday that 88 percent of the state’s health staff had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine as of Sept. 14.