HHS will require health care workforce to be vaccinated against Covid-19
By Jeremy Diamond and Devan Cole, CNN
Covid-19 vaccinations will be required for the more than 25,000 health care staff and volunteers working at the Department of Health and Human Services, Secretary Xavier Becerra announced Thursday.
“Staff at the Indian Health Service (IHS) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) who serve in federally-operated health care and clinical research facilities and interact with, or have the potential to come into contact with, patients will be required to receive the Covid-19 vaccine,” Becerra said in a statement.
The secretary said the vaccination requirement will apply to “employees, contractors, trainees, and volunteers whose duties put them in contact or potential contact with patients at an HHS medical or clinical research facility.”
An HHS official said the requirement is expected to go into effect by the end of September.
In addition, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced Thursday that members of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps must also be vaccinated. Those public health officials are included in the 25,000 figure, an HHS official said.
The announcements add to a growing list of vaccine requirements instituted by various federal departments and agencies for their employees in recent days. On Monday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he was moving to have all active-duty members of the US military vaccinated against the virus, and last month, President Joe Biden announced that all federal employees must attest to being vaccinated against Covid-19 or face strict protocols.
The statement from HHS noted that “IHS, NIH and the Commissioned Corps already require such personnel to receive the seasonal influenza vaccine and other routine vaccinations, with processes for medical and religious exemptions.”
“As President Biden has said, we are looking at every way we can to increase vaccinations to keep more people safe, and requiring our HHS health care workforce to get vaccinated will protect our federal workers, as well as the patients and people they serve,” Becerra said.
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CNN’s Barbara Starr, Kaitlan Collins and Zachary Cohen contributed to this report.
