“It just felt like the right time to do it.” Healthcare employers require vaccines as variant spreads - WECT

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WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - The Delta variant of COVID-19 is causing spikes in cases and hospitalizations across the country. Thursday, six healthcare systems in North Carolina, including Novant Health, announced that employees will be required to get the vaccine.

Novant Health says all employees must be fully vaccinated by September 15 unless they have a religious or medical exemption, which will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

“Many of our systems have grown concerned about the safety of their staff and their patients,” said Cody Hand, Senior Vice President of the North Carolina Healthcare Association. “As the vaccines have become more widely available, and as we’re more confident in the safety of those vaccines, many of our systems have taken the step, not unprecedented, to require the COVID vaccine of their staff.”

A Novant Health spokesperson says employees who are not vaccinated before the deadline and are not exempt will be suspended and could lose their jobs. The decision to require vaccines comes months after shots first became available to healthcare workers.

“I think it’s taken this long because we were hoping that it would be a voluntary effort and many of our systems have had an 80% uptick in vaccinations,” said Hand. “But we still have a few that have not seen those numbers, so it’s kind of the perfect storm here. The Delta variant is wreaking havoc, this week alone three of our systems have lost staff, they’ve died because of the Delta variant.”

The spread and uncertainty of the Delta variant is causing healthcare agencies to implement the new mandate.

“We continue to see numbers and we see people very sick. It’s not like we’re seeing less sick, we’re seeing just sick, if not more sick, and the reason is the Delta variant is certainly a virus that is much more transmissible then we saw in the previous variance,” said Dr. West Paul, Senior Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Novant Health.

Officials say as more information comes out about the virus and the vaccine, they feel more confident in making it a requirement for employees.

“As time has passed we now know that it is a safe vaccine with very few side effects reported and it just felt like the right time to do it in order to get it rolled in with other vaccination programs,” said Hand.

Novant Health says about two-thirds of its employees have already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Copyright 2021 WECT. All rights reserved.

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