Employees Of Minneapolis Federal Reserve Must Get COVID Vaccine

MINNEAPOLIS — All 1,100 employees of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis are required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of August unless they cannot get vaccinated due to medical conditions or religious beliefs. The bank announced the new policy Wednesday.

If an employee does not qualify for an exemption, and they still refuse to get the vaccine, they will not be allowed to continue working at the Minneapolis branch of the Federal Reserve.

New hires will also be subject to the vaccination policy.

Since March 2020, more than 90 percent of employees of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve have worked remotely. The bank is now moving towards fully reopening its downtown office.

"In order to fulfill our public-service mission, we need more face-to-face contact than remote work allows, but there is no way for us to bring a critical mass of our staff back into our facilities and maintain social distancing," Neel Kashkari, the president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, wrote in a blog post.

"Hence, we need our employees to be vaccinated."

The Minneapolis Federal Reserve oversees the ninth district, which includes Minnesota, Montona, North Dakota, South Dakota, and 26 counties in Wisconsin and Michigan.