Covenant Health, Knoxville’s largest heathcare provider, will not be firing employees who are not fully vaccinated by Jan. 4, 2022. That’s the impact of this statement, released Wednesday:
“In recent weeks, Covenant Health has taken steps to assure that our health system complied with a vaccine mandate for healthcare employees initiated Nov. 4 through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). More than 55% of our patients rely on Medicare, and in order to continue caring for our communities, we were required to comply with the federal mandate by Jan. 4, 2022.
“A preliminary injunction has now paused CMS enforcement of the vaccine mandate. In conjunction with this development, Covenant Health also will pause our requirement for employees to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.
“Our employee and medical staff compliance with the previous mandate is currently 90%. We continue to strongly urge all employees to receive the Covid-19 vaccination, and are currently offering vaccinations to employees who have not yet received them.”
Statement provided by Covenant Health Marketing Department.