To comply with multiple federal mandates, UA implemented an employee COVID-19 vaccination requirement on Oct. 22. Specifically, President Biden’s Executive Order 14042 mandates that employees of federal contractors are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) mandated vaccination of employees of health care facilities.
Federal courts have now put the vaccine requirement on hold for further consideration. Today, a federal court issued a nationwide order to suspend the vaccine mandate for employees of federal contractors. This follows a Nov. 30 federal court order to suspend the CMS vaccine mandate for health care workers.
As a result, UA’s vaccine requirement is suspended. At this time, UA will not be required to take action regarding unvaccinated employees on Jan. 4, 2022.
Because the ultimate outcome of legal challenges is not decided, we will continue to closely monitor legal developments and provide guidance to employees.
If the injunctions are lifted by the courts, UA must be ready to comply with federal requirements. If you are an employee (including student employees) who does not already have a COVID-19 vaccine record or an approved vaccine exemption on file with UA, please consider taking the following steps as a voluntary measure:
- Upload your vaccination documentation via the UA Vaccine Management Portal, or
- Request a medical, disability or religious exemption through the UA Vaccine Management Portal.
Taking these voluntary steps now will help ensure (1) medical, disability or religious exemption requests are processed in a timely manner, and (2) UA can achieve compliance if the injunctions are lifted. It also provides UA’s health and safety leadership important data to guide future decisions about on-campus safety strategies.
We remain encouraged by the high vaccination rates previously voluntarily reported by faculty, staff and students, and continue to urge others to take advantage of the free vaccines. The protection afforded by the vaccine has been essential in keeping positive case numbers low.