CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Clinic said Friday that 99% of its employees have complied with the federal government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Employees of the hospital system had until Thursday to get their first dose of one of the authorized COVID-19 vaccines or file for an exemption. The Cleveland Clinic would not say what percentage of employees filed for an exemption.
“Employees who have not begun the vaccination process and do not have an approved exemption or an exemption pending, have been placed on an unpaid leave of absence (LOA) beginning today,” the Cleveland Clinic said in a statement.
The Cleveland Clinic has 68,700 employees.
While the federal government has withdrawn a COVID-19 vaccine mandate on most companies, the edict for health care workers remains in place following a series of legal battles.
The federal government said the mandates cover 10.4 million health care workers at 76,000 medical facilities.
“The bottom line is that vaccine requirements work and are an important tool to protect patients – and also to keep our health care workers healthy,” said Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure. “We’ve already seen many health care providers successfully implement requirements for their staff.”
Vaccine mandates, however, drew some protests outside hospitals, including the Cleveland Clinic.
