Essentia Health to Require COVID-19 Vaccine as Condition of Employment

Essentia Health will require all staff members to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of their employment. Vaccination also will be required as a condition of entering their facilities to perform services for Essentia Health.

Employees must receive their first dose of vaccine by October 1 and their second dose in a two-dose series by November 1. There will be a process for requesting a medical exemption based on CDC guidelines or a religious exemption.

This policy affects all of their employees, including remote workers, along with volunteers, students, non-employed medical staff, Board members and others who provide services within their facilities.

Essentia says they’re proud of the work they’ve done to vaccinate the community. That includes close to 200,000 doses administered since late December 2020. They say that because of their proven effectiveness at preventing COVID-19, vaccines remain the safest and surest way out of this public health crisis. With community transmission on the rise across their region due to the contagious delta variant, the need for vaccination continues to be crucial.

Essentia Health says their patients entrust their care to them in some of the most vulnerable times in their lives and depend on health care workers to be vaccinated to help keep them safe. Thus, they say vaccination is especially important for their workers whose duty it is to protect vulnerable, elderly and critically ill patients. They believe it’s an important way for their colleagues to make a healthy difference in the communities they serve.