CLEVELAND — Staff at the Cleveland Clinic will soon be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the health care system announced Friday. 

What You Need To Know

  • The Cleveland Clinic said employees must by fully vaccinated by Jan. 4

  • Employees who are not fully vaccinated or exempted face termination

  • The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently issued protocols requiring health care workers to get vaccinated

  • While employees can submit medical or religious exemptions, workers will not have the option of testing out

The Cleveland Clinic cites guidance from the federal government, which will require all health care workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 4. The Cleveland Clinic said that employees can apply for medical and religious exemptions. 

The state of Ohio lists the Cleveland Clinic as the state’s largest employer.

The federal government’s guidance for health care workers is different from recent protocols issued for workers of government contractors or private companies with 100 or more employees. Workers for private companies or government contractors would be allowed to submit weekly COVID-19 testing in lieu of getting vaccinated.

The federal government guidance on employees of government contractors and private employers is still being litigated. 

In August, the Ohio Hospital Association recommended networks to require COVID-19 vaccinations among staff. A number of hospital systems in Ohio, including Metro Health, which is also based in northeast Ohio, announced vaccine requirements. MetroHealth’s vaccine requirement went into effect earlier this month. 

While MetroHealth opted to follow the Ohio Hospital Association’s recommendation, Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals did not. In September, following an announcement that the federal government would soon require health care workers to get vaccinated, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals said.

According to Ohio's Department of Health, 65.2% of Ohioans ages 12 and up have gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

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