Cerner pushes back COVID-19 vaccine requirement for remote employees until late spring

Cerner Corp., Kansas City’s biggest private employer, is delaying its requirement for some of its virtual employees to get one of the widely available COVID-19 vaccines.

Company spokeswoman Stephanie Greenwood said in an email Thursday that the new deadline for workers who are based in the U.S. and do not have client-facing roles is June 6. That is also the day workers are expected to return to the office.

Greenwood said the vaccine deadline has already passed for employees in Cerner’s workforce who deal directly with clients and patients or must report to one of the company’s campuses.

The health care information technology company first announced that all U.S. employees would be required to be vaccinated in October. At the time, Cerner was giving employees until Dec. 8 to be fully vaccinated. That meant employees would need to receive both doses of the Pfizer of Moderna vaccines, or a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, by Nov. 24.

Note: This story has been updated to clarify that the vaccine deadline extension applies only to portions of Cerner’s workforce that are currently working in remote roles.

This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 4:47 PM.