Children’s Health, Cook Children’s to require COVID-19 vaccine for all employees

Doctor discusses COVID-19 delta variant dangers

DALLAS - Two more North Texas hospitals will require all employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

Children’s Health in Dallas and Cook Children’s in Fort Worth announced their mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policies on Wednesday as cases continue to rise throughout the region due to the spread of the Delta variant among the unvaccinated.

Children’s Health said all staff, physicians, volunteers, students/trainees, vendors and contractors must be fully vaccinated by October 1. Presently, more than 80 percent of its staff is vaccinated, hospital officials said.

"We are privileged to care for some of the most medically complex children in the region, and we believe it is our ethical duty to protect them and the nearly 70 percent of our patients who are younger than 12 years-old and ineligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine," a hospital spokesman said in a statement.

Cook Children’s is requiring all staff, physicians, volunteers, students/trainees, vendors and contractors to be fully vaccinated by noon on Sept. 27. Officials there said more than 95 percent of physicians and 66 percent of employees are vaccinated.

"Given how close we are to critically-ill children, we know this is the right decision for our system and ultimately our patients," said President and CEO Rick W. Merrill.

Multiple health systems in North Texas announced COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the past week. Among those requiring the shot for all staff: Baylor Scott & White, Methodist and Texas Health.

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Baylor Scott & White Health to require staff and other workers to be vaccinated starting Oct. 1