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Banner Health Defines COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate for All Employees
Employees must be vaccinated before November 1, with a few exceptions. Their employment depends on a vaccine, the company’s CEO said.
PHOENIX – Health Banner ad Tuesday that more than 50,000 of its employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by November 1 of this year, with a few exceptions.
To protect patients, team members and the community, Banner Health today informed its employees that vaccination against COVID-19 will be a condition of employment. With few exceptions, all members of the ‘team have until November 1 to be fully vaccinated, “read a July 20 press release in part.
The decision was made for several seasons, including having health workers caring for the community’s most vulnerable residents, Delta variant is on the rise, and flu season and the coincidence of COVID-19 could wreak havoc on the healthcare system.
“We care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities and we owe it to them to take all possible steps to ensure the safest care environment,” said Peter Fine, President and CEO of Banner Health .
The Delta variant is responsible for more than 80% of new cases of COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“In some parts of the country the percentage is even higher, especially in areas with low vaccination rates,” Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday during a Senate hearing. American.
“The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 variants is to prevent the spread of the disease, and vaccination is the most powerful tool we have,” she continued.
Details on how employees can be exempted from vaccines will be released at a later date.
Banner Health is the state’s largest private employer.
Banner Health nurse agrees with terms of reference
Banner Health employee Kristina Chavez agrees with the decision and says she was vaccinated last December.
She has been with the company for over 15 years.
“Clearly I’m stepping in because, yeah, finally. What took so long? ” she said. She is relieved by the warrant but says she wants the move to be made much sooner.
Currently, vaccinated team members are marked with a note on their badges.
Chavez is hoping her unvaccinated colleagues will get vaccinated, but she is still worried about being infected, but knows the vaccine is preventing her from being in intensive care or dying.
Is the mandate legal? Federal COVID-19 guidelines say yes
At the end of May, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated COVID-19 guidelines indicating that employers could require employees to be vaccinated.
Local lawyer Krizia Verplancke focuses on labor law and says of the mandate: “If an employee of an employer offers a mandate for vaccination and an employee refuses to do so, it gives the employer of reasons for terminating his employment. “
However, employers must comply with certain arrangements. For example, certain religious beliefs or health issues preventing employees from getting vaccinated.
Verplancke says she works with many local companies who are reluctant to promulgate vaccine mandates.
“So you know, it depends on how much risk employers want to take and what they see as the benefit for their employees if they put that kind of mandate in place,” she said.
Banner Health has an incentive program for fully immunized employees. There will be draws this month and next with a total of ten winners receiving $ 10,000 each.
Read the full press release here.
The latest news on COVID-19 in Arizona
Arizona health officials reported 1,154 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, but no new deaths.
It’s the second day in a row of more than 1,000 new confirmed cases across the state. That brings the total number of cases in Arizona since the start of the pandemic to 910,436. The death toll remains at 18,117.
In Arizona, as of July 20, more than 6.7 million doses of the vaccine had been administered. More than 3.6 million people, or 51.1% of the state’s vaccine-eligible population, have received at least one dose. Nearly 3.3. million people have been fully immunized.
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