Delta Air Lines will charge unvaccinated employees an extra $200 a month for company health insurance in an effort to offset the costs of staff being hospitalised for the coronavirus.
The company said all employees recently hospitalised by the virus had been unvaccinated, and that an average hospital stay costs the company $50,000.
“This surcharge will be necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is creating for our company,” CEO Ed Bastian said on Wednesday.
Unvaccinated employees will also be required to take a Covid test each week while cases are high.
The measure follows similar efforts from other airlines aimed at addressing the rising cases of the Delta variant across the country. United Airlines requires all of its employees to be vaccinated by 27 September or face termination.
Around 150,000 new cases of the coronavirus are being reported each day in the US, the highest level since January.
Some 62 per cent of American adults are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC). While vaccination rates have been rising in recent weeks, a recent CDC study found that unvaccinated people are 29 times more likely to be hospitalised than those who are vaccinated.
A separate study from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that coronavirus hospitalisations for unvaccinated patients cost the US healthcare system some $2.3billion.
Delta Air Lines also said it would no longer provide pay protection to unvaccinated employees who contract the coronavirus.
“Protecting yourself, your colleagues, your loved ones and your community is fundamental to the shared values that have driven our success for nearly a century. Vaccinations are the safest, most effective, and most powerful tool we have to achieve our goals, live up to our values and move forward,” Mr Bastian said.
