2 North Texas Children's Hospitals Requiring All Workers To Be Fully Vaccinated
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Two North Texas children's hospitals have joined other health care systems in requiring COVID-19 vaccinations among all their workers.
Children's Health in Dallas is mandating that its workers be fully vaccinated by Oct. 1, 2021, while Cook Children's Health Care System is requiring it by Sept. 27.
According to the hospital systems, the rule applies to all team members, providers, volunteers, students/trainees, vendors and contractors.
"The safety of our patients, their families and our team members has been and remains our number one priority at Children's Health. We are proud of our COVID-19 vaccination efforts with more than 80 percent of our team members fully vaccinated to date. As COVID-19 cases rapidly increase in the community, we believe now is the right time to take the next step in ensuring our patients and team members have the greatest protection against COVID-19," Children's Health said in a statement.
"The delta variant is very contagious and many of our patients are vulnerable to COVID-19 because they can't get vaccinated at this time," said Cook Children's President and CEO Rick W. Merrill. "I personally received the vaccine in December, as did more than 95% of our physicians and two thirds of our employees. Given how close we are to critically-ill children, we know this is the right decision for our system and ultimately our patients."
The hospitals join other health care systems such as Baylor Scott & White and Methodist Health System in requiring vaccinations.
The requirements come as the nation continues to see surges in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations brought about by the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant.