Chesapeake Regional Healthcare, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters Health System, Riverside Health System and Sentara Healthcare have all announced that they have each expanded their employee vaccination policies to include the expectation that all team members will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18.

This timeline gives employees eight weeks to become fully vaccinated now that the FDA has approved at least one of the vaccines. The region’s health care organizations’ announcements come after the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association’s July 18 statement supporting COVID-19 vaccine requirements for all hospital and health system employees.

The highly contagious Delta variant is causing another spike in the number of COVID-19 infections nationally with unvaccinated individuals at the highest risk. As the community’s front-line defense against COVID-19, Hampton Roads’ leading health care providers believe they each have a moral and ethical responsibility...