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The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Monday that it will require its health care professionals to be vaccinated within the next two months as coronavirus infections have more than doubled in the past month at its medical facilities.
VA data show roughly 300,000 employees – nearly 80% – have been vaccinated. But that includes staff not involved in patient care, and the percentage has varied widely by facility. Earlier this month, VA officials confirmed that 85% of staff at the facility in New Orleans had been inoculated, compared with 59% in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement Monday that mandating vaccines is “the best way to keep veterans safe, especially as the Delta variant spreads across the country.”