More than 17,000 health-care workers in Quebec will be suspended next month for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and now provincial officials are scrambling to fill in the gaps.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Christian Dubé told CBC on Monday that a total of 17,642 employees within Quebec’s health-care network still haven’t had their first dose.
Nearly half of those unvaccinated employees are front-line workers who are in direct contact with patients, the spokesperson said.
They will all be suspended Oct. 15 when the provincial decree that mandates all health-care workers be fully vaccinated kicks in.
Thousands more who’ve only received a first dose will also be off the job until they get the second.