At a time when many employers are abandoning COVID-19 vaccination mandates, one is doubling down by expanding its mandate on a companywide basis.
CVS Health, parent company of Aetna Insurance, CVS Pharmacy, and MinuteClinic, has more than 300,000 employees nationwide. Its website lists nearly 200 CVS Pharmacy locations and 30 CVS MinuteClincs, with roughly 13,000 employees in Arizona across all of the company’s businesses.
Back in August the company mandated vaccinations for its corporate employees as well as clinical staff such as nurses, care managers, and pharmacists. But that policy was recently revised to apply companywide, according to Joe Goode, senior director of CVS Health’s corporate communications.
“With more than 99.5% compliance in our first phase, we’ve expanded our policy to cover all employees,” Goode wrote in an email to Arizona Daily Independent. “This decision builds on our commitment to protect the health and safety of employees, customers, and communities.”
As a result of the new policy, all employees must be fully vaccinated by March 31, 2022. However, some employees could be required to adhere to an earlier deadline depending on state or federal mandates, Goode wrote.
Although Goode’s email confirmed the mandate expansion, there appears to have been no press release issued about the expanded vaccination requirement. The initial mandate was heralded in a nationwide media announcement in August.
It is unclear how many employees were included in the first round of mandated vaccinations, although Goode noted less than one percent of that group were terminated as a result of noncompliance.
CVS Health also announced in August that new hires at its corporate office as well as those with patient-involved jobs must have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine prior to the first day of employment. The next month, the company held a national hiring event which included the need to fill 600 positions in Arizona.