Monument Health implements vaccination requirement

RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — Monument Health is joining dozens of other health care systems across the country, including Sanford Health and Avera Health, in requiring that its physicians and caregivers be vaccinated against COVID-19. The Rapid City-based system includes five hospitals and 38 medical clinics and specialty centers. Its vaccination requirement begins Dec. 1, 2021. Monument Health, as other health systems, will consider exemption requests for specific conditions and religious beliefs. The highly transmissible Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus has been spreading rapidly in western South Dakota. The number of new weekly West River coronavirus cases has nearly tripled in three weeks with Monument Health treating a record number of hospitalized patients.