CVS will require nurses, pharmacists, corporate employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID

 CVS Health employees at its pharmacies and those who work in its corporate offices will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of October.

CVS Health announced Monday that any employee who interacts with patients or who works as part of its corporate staff must be fully vaccinated no later than Oct. 31. New hires in the same roles must have received their first dose by Sept. 15.

Pharmacists working in the company’s retail stores will have until November 30 to be fully vaccinated due to the size of this employee population, CVS said.

“From the start of the pandemic, our decision-making process has been driven by health, safety and science,” CVS Health President and CEO Karen Lynch said in a statement. “While the vast majority of our employees have chosen to be vaccinated, this decision is in direct response to the dramatic rise in cases among the unvaccinated.”

Proof of vaccination will be required for nurses, care managers and pharmacists at CVS. Other roles at CVS Health continues to review other positions that may require the vaccine and could add others based on updated data and public health guidance, the company said.

CVS Health, which has so far administered more than 30 million COVID vaccines across the country, joins a growing list of health-based businesses that are requiring its employees to get vaccinated.

Mass General Brigham, Beth Israel Lahey Health and Wellforce, Massachusetts’s largest health care provider, will mandate all of their employees get vaccinated. The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is requiring all new and existing staff members are vaccinated before Oct. 1.

UMass Memorial Health will also make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for its caregivers this fall.

Other hospitals, like Baystate Health, the largest health care provider in Western Massachusetts, sent a memo to employees on July 26 that all employees must receive the vaccine by Oct. 1.

A recent survey found that 81% of Massachusetts residents approve of federal, state and local governments requiring people to get the vaccine.