CEO says all Banner Health employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by November 1

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Banner Health sets COVID-19 vaccination mandate for all employees

Employees must be vaccinated by November 1, with limited exceptions. The company’s CEO says their hiring depends on a vaccine.

Phoenix — Banner Health announced Tuesday that more than 50,000 of its employees must be vaccinated against COVID-19 by November 1 of this year, with limited exceptions.

“To protect patients, team members and the community, Banner Health today notified its employees that vaccination against COVID-19 will be a requirement of employment. With limited exceptions, all team members have until November 1 to fully vaccinate,” read a July 20 press release in part.

The decision has been made for several seasons, including the fact that health care workers are taking care of the most vulnerable residents of the community, the delta variable is on the rise, flu season and the concurrence of COVID-19 can wreak havoc on the health care system.

“We care for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities, and we owe it to them to take every measure possible to ensure a safe care environment,” said Peter Fine, President and CEO of Banner Health.

Variable delta is the cause of more than 80% of new COVID-19 cases, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“In some parts of the country, the proportion is higher — especially in areas with lower vaccination rates,” Dr. Rochelle Walinsky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a US Senate hearing on Tuesday.

“The best way to prevent the spread of COVID-19 variants is to prevent the spread of disease, and vaccination is our most powerful tool,” she continued.

Details of how employees will be exempted from vaccinations will be released at a later time.

Banner Health is the state’s largest private employer.

Nurse Banner Health agrees with this mandate

Banner Health employee Cristina Chavez agrees with the decision and says she received the vaccination last December.

She has been with the company for more than 15 years.

“Obviously I’m wrestling because, yeah, finally. What took so long?” She said. She was relieved by the mandate but says she wishes it could be done much sooner.

Currently, vaccinated team members are marked with a note on their badges.

Chavez hopes her unvaccinated colleagues will get theirs, but is still worried she might catch an infection but knows the vaccine prevents her from being in the ICU or dying.

Is the authorization legal? Federal guidelines on COVID-19 say yes

At the end of May, the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its COVID-19 guidelines saying employers can mandate vaccinations for employees.

Local attorney Krizia Verplancke focuses on labor law and says of the mandate, “If an employee of the employer provides a mandate for the vaccine and the employee refuses to do so, it gives the employer reasons to terminate his employment.”

However, employers have to comply with some facilities. For example, certain religious beliefs or health conditions prevent employees from getting the vaccine.

Verplancke says it’s working with several local companies that are reluctant to enact vaccine laws.

“You know, it depends on what risks employers are willing to take and what they see as a benefit to their employees if they put that kind of delegation in place,” she said.

Banner Health has an incentive program for fully vaccinated employees. There will be raffles this month and next month where ten winners receive a total of $10,000 each.

Read the full press release here.

The latest on COVID-19 in Arizona

Arizona health officials on Tuesday reported 1,154 new cases of COVID-19 but no new deaths.

This is the second day in a row for more than 1,000 new cases confirmed across the state. This brings the total number of cases in Arizona since the pandemic began to 910,436. The death toll remains at 18,117.

In Arizona as of July 20, more than 6.7 million doses of vaccine have been administered. More than 3.6 million people, or 51.1% of the state’s eligible population for the vaccine, have received at least one dose. approximately 3.3. One million people have been fully vaccinated.

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