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Another St. Louis area hospital announces vaccine requirement

All St. Luke's employees, volunteers, physicians, licensed independent practitioners and essential vendors will have to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Aug. 31

ST. LOUIS — Another St. Louis employer is requiring COVID-19 vaccinations.

St. Luke’s Hospital made the announcement Friday. All employees, volunteers, physicians, licensed independent practitioners and essential vendors who have contact with patients will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Aug. 13.

“As a healthcare leader in our community, we are responsible for doing everything we can to care for and protect our patients and their families during their most vulnerable times,” said Shane Cerone, St. Luke’s Hospital president and chief executive officer. “We want to continue providing the safest environment possible for them and for our healthcare team to further our mission of improving the health of the community.”

St. Luke's has about 4,600 employees; about 80% of them already are vaccinated. In all, about 5,000 people will be required to get vaccinated, after adding in volunteers, vendors and other outside workers.

St. Luke’s is the latest employer in the St. Louis area to announce a vaccine requirement.

BJC HealthCare, St. Louis’ largest employer, announced earlier this month that every employee will be required to have their COVID-19 vaccination by Sept. 15.

Washington University, which is affiliated with multiple BJC facilities, also announced that all of its faculty, staff and trainees would be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

Several local universities also have outlined their vaccine policies ahead of the next school year. SIUE students will need to be vaccinated or wear a mask. SLU and WashU announced earlier this month that they will require vaccinations before the start of the fall semester.

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