Mayo Clinic fires 700 workers who failed to comply with Covid vaccine mandate

The Mayo Clinic is firing roughly 700 employees who failed to comply with the nonprofit medical center’s mandatory Covid-19 vaccination policy.

Workers at the Mayo Clinic had been given until Monday to get their first dose of a vaccine or obtain a medical or religious exemption to the rule. They were also expected not to delay on receiving a second dose if they had already gotten the first jab.

Hundreds of employees failed to meet those requirements and were let go, the Mayo Clinic said in a statement shared with NBC News on Wednesday.

“Nearly 99 percent of employees across all Mayo Clinic locations complied with Mayo’s required Covid-19 vaccination program by the Jan. 3 deadline,” the clinic said of its staff, which consists of around 73,000 workers.

The Mayo Clinic said that approximately 1 percent of its staff, or around 700 people, would be “released from employment.”