Houston (Texas), April 25: A hospital system in the U.S. city of Houston has mandated all of its workers to have COVID-19 vaccine, media reported Saturday.
Houston Methodist, a medical center and six community hospitals, is requiring its staff to get the vaccine by June 7 in order to keep their jobs, reports said.
In an email to its employees on Friday, Marc Boom, Houston Methodist's president and CEO, said the health system needs to do all it can to keep patients safe during the pandemic, including having all staff vaccinated.
"Mandating the vaccine was not a decision we made lightly, but science has proven that the COVID-19 vaccines are very safe and very effective," the email read.
"By choosing to be vaccinated, you are leaders - showing our colleagues in health care what must be done to protect our patients, ourselves, our families and our communities," it continued.
As of Friday, Houston Methodist said 89 percent of employees had been vaccinated, but some employees were upset about the requirement.
According to CBS report, this decision made Houston Methodist the first hospital system in the United States to issue a vaccination mandate. Other Texas hospitals will soon follow suit, said the report.
Source: Xinhua