The primary main airline to introduce a COVID-19vaccine mandate for its workers is rolling it again.
In a memo to workers Thursday morning, United Airways stated it might chill out the vaccine mandate it applied in August 2021, which required its 67,000 U.S. workers be totally vaccinated.
Those who declined had been both fired, or, within the case of those that obtained medical or spiritual exemptions, moved to non-customer-facing roles. Later this month, workers who had been exempted will be capable of return to their regular jobs.
United stated 2,200 workers acquired the exemption and remained unvaccinated, 5 of whom died. In distinction, deaths amongst United’s vaccinated workers fell to zero after the mandate was applied.
“Along with the exceptional stage of safety we’ve seen in our personal United information for vaccinated workers, the each day common of COVID circumstances has dropped greater than 90 p.c and associated hospitalizations have declined greater than two-thirds from their January 2022 peak,” Kirk Limacher, United’s vp of human assets, wrote within the memo.
“These adjustments counsel that the pandemic is starting to meaningfully recede. In consequence, we’re assured we are able to safely start the method of returning our [reasonable accommodation] workers to their jobs,” he added.
After skyrocketing in the course of the omicron surge, new each day COVID-19 infections are at their lowest level since final summer season. Well being officers hope the pandemic could fade right into a extra endemic stage, although the path to endemicity isn’t precisely clear minimize.
Notably, Limacher left the door open to re-implementing the mandate ought to one other variant emerge or COVID developments immediately reverse course.
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