Aspirus St. Luke's Implements COVID-19 Vaccine Policy for Employees, Volunteers, Vendors & Board Members

All St. Luke’s employees, vendors, volunteers and board members will be required to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, or file a religious or medical exemption by Wednesday, September 1 and have completed the vaccine series by Friday, October 1. In order to minimize exposure within our facilities, those who are currently unvaccinated and those who eventually qualify for exemptions will be required to take COVID-19 tests regularly.

“We understand people have strong beliefs about this,” Dr. Nick Van Deelen, St. Luke’s Co-President/CEO and CMO said. “Ultimately, the policy is about keeping our patients and staff safe and reducing the community transmission of a serious disease.”

Those who have not been vaccinated are at greater risk of disease, hospitalization and death when compared to those who have been vaccinated. To date, 78% of St. Luke’s employees and 97% of St. Luke’s physicians have received their COVID-19 vaccine.

St. Luke’s has been closely monitoring the developing data related to the COVID-19 Delta variant. The Delta variant is significantly more infectious and can cause more severe illness. St. Luke’s arrived at the decision to implement a policy due to the highly contagious nature of this new variant, coupled with the significant benefits the vaccine has shown in the reduction of COVID-19 infections, severe illness, hospitalizations and death.