Southwest Airlines Will Vaccinate Its Employees Against COVID-19 for Free

Southwest Airlines revealed yesterday that it plans to provide employees with COVID-19 vaccinations for free, once vaccines become widely available in the U.S.

“We have teams working to identify third parties who can provide vaccines to our employees as soon as they are able to do so—likely during later phases in the vaccine roll-out plan,” the Dallas-based carrier said in a statement.

The company said that its workers are “strongly encouraged” to get the COVID-19 inoculation when the time comes. The vaccines themselves will be funded by the federal government, while the cost of administrative fees will be covered by the airline under its employees’ health plans.

“Southwest is strongly encouraging employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In these very early phases of roll-out of vaccine, states and counties are driving prioritization and distribution, and that’s generally limited to state or county designated medical providers,” a Southwest spokesperson explained to Fox News.

“We’re developing our plan for vaccines as quickly as new information becomes available, as are many other organizations and communities,” the spokesperson continued. “In the meantime, we continue to encourage Southwest employees to seek out updates and information from the CDC, as well as on state and local websites on access to vaccines.”