Hennepin County is no longer requiring its thousands of volunteers, who do everything from library work to trash collection on highways, to be vaccinated for COVID-19.
County officials in the last month started to consider changing the policy requiring vaccination for its volunteers, which had been in place since September 2021, before recently deciding to lift the requirement. Vaccination continues to be mandatory for the county's 9,000 employees, with those refusing to comply possibly facing discipline.
As the pandemic has waned, county officials have evaluated case data and weighed changes to policies such as mask wearing and access to buildings, said Michael Rossman, the county's chief human resources officer. Such was the case with the vaccination of county volunteers.
Some volunteer work is done remotely or involves little contact with employees, Rossman said. Throw in volunteerism that is done outdoors in the summer, and lifting the vaccination requirement became the right thing to do to keep the volunteer program vibrant, he said.
"We know some people might consider this a little controversial, but so were other policy changes we have made during the pandemic," he said. "The county board is in favor of this move."
As buildings and services shut down during the pandemic, so did the number of volunteers. In 2019, Hennepin County had 4,147 volunteers, nearly half of whom worked at the county's 41 library branches. In 2020, the overall number of volunteers dropped to 1,640. Last year saw a resurgence, with 2,909 volunteers.
When the county required all new volunteers to be fully vaccinated for COVID last year, it provided for medical or religious exemptions. Eight volunteers applied for a religious exemption, and six received it, Rossman said; the other two are pending.
County officials made sure they were legally within their rights to mandate vaccination for their volunteers, Rossman said.
