(WXYZ) — Hundreds of Beaumont Health System workers have been suspended and dozens more have resigned for failing to meet an Oct. 18 deadline for COVID-19 vaccination.
The news comes as President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for all health care workers that was announced in September. Either get vaccinated or get weekly coronavirus tests.
Beaumont Health said there are about 33,000 workers throughout the health system; 370 of those have been suspended, 70 have resigned and 2,300 workers have been granted an exemption. That's equal to just 1%.
This means a majority of Beaumont's workforce is vaccinated against COVID-19. In July, the health system said it would be issuing the mandate for employees and providers working across its eight hospital systems, and the mandate would go into effect as soon as a vaccine become FDA approved.
In a statement, Beaumont said:
"We are very pleased to report the vast majority of Beaumont employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19. We know the vaccine is safe, effective and saves lives. Approximately 1 percent of our workforce, or 370 of our 33,000 employees, has been suspended for not meeting our COVID vaccine requirements before our deadline. We hope that those 370 employees will choose to get vaccinated and return to work soon. If they choose to not meet our vaccine requirements by Nov. 16, their employment will be terminated. Approximately 70 employees have resigned because they have chosen to not get vaccinated."
Earlier this week, U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a vaccine mandate for Maine healthcare workers, which was the latest blow for those opponents of the mandates.
About two weeks ago, 400 Henry Ford Health Care workers walked off the job for refusing the vaccine. That's about 1% of its workforce. About 1,900 were given exemptions and about 250 religious exemptions were denied.
Henry Ford was the first health system in Michigan to require workers to be vaccinated as a condition of "continued employment."
Sparrow, McLaren and the DMC don't currently have vaccine mandates for workers, but they will soon if they want to receive federal funding for Medicare and Medicaid.
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