Many companies in making their announcements cited that their workplace will be subject to the Biden administration’s forthcoming COVID-19 vaccination requirements.
President Joe Biden in September told OSHA to write new rules requiring companies with more than 100 employees to be vaccinated or regularly, and those rules are expected to be published soon.
In separate guidance, federal contractor employees must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8.
In total, more than 6.4 million Ohioans have at least started a vaccination series, which is approximately 55% of the population.
This includes around 225,000 Ohioans who got their first COVID-19 shot in September.
Credit: Submitted
Credit: Submitted
Dayton-based CareSource, one of the city’s largest employers, said in a statement that the insurance company “will comply with the federal vaccine mandate, and we have notified employees that they need to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8 or have an approved accommodation in place.”
Nursing homes are one of the few industries with detailed staff vaccination data.
About 56.3% of health care staff in Ohio nursing homes were fully vaccinated in the latest AARP analysis, which looked at the average vaccination rates for the four weeks leading up to Sept. 19.
“All staff and residents of long-term care facilities must be vaccinated against coronavirus to prevent more heartbreaking losses as we head into winter,” Holly Holtzen, AARP state director, said in a statement about the new data.
With Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the Dayton region is a community heavily saturated with federal contractors, which has prompted new workplace vaccine rules to get ready for the Dec. 8 vaccine deadline.
Among these federal contractors is GE Aviation, a contractor with a major local presence. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it had more than 9,000 employees in Southwest Ohio, but there were some layoffs since.
As a federal contractor, GE is covered by executive order which requires employees of federal contractors to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
All GE U.S. employees will be fully vaccinated or receive a medical or religious accommodation by Dec. 8 as required in the order.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also announced all staff within Medicare- and Medicaid-certified facilities will need to be vaccinated with no option for regular testing. That order encompasses most health care workers, including employees at nursing homes, hospitals and home health agencies.
Ohio hospitals are the largest employers in the Dayton region and the three major networks -- Premier Health, Kettering Health and Dayton Children’s -- have set a Dec. 1 deadline for staff to get vaccinated, with some exemptions.
The Dayton Daily News has also previously reported that some businesses expect legal challenges and time-consuming steps in the regulatory process before vaccination rules are fully implemented.
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