Major Louisville employer delays return to office indefinitely, requires COVID booster shot

LOUISIVLLE, Ky. — At one point, Humana planned to have its workers return to in-person work after Labor Day in 2021 for the first time since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.

But now, after several setbacks induced by new COVID-19 variants, the Louisville-based health care giant has delayed workers' return to the office indefinitely.

The company, which employs more than 90,000 nationwide — including more than 12,000 in the Louisville area — and has a large footprint downtown, most recently had a plan to have workers return starting on Jan. 14.

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"As infections and hospitalizations caused by the COVID-19 Omicron variant continue to rise at alarming rates, we know we need to continue to take action to keep Humana employees, our members and our communities safe," Humana spokesman Mark Taylor told The Courier Journal on Wednesday.

"Therefore, in December, we notified our employees that we have postponed our facilities re-entry date until further notice," he said. "In addition to keeping all of our employees safe, this also helps us prioritize our supplies ... to ensure those who are required to work outside of the home are protected."

Moreover, Humana has updated its protocols to say that employees and contractors "who work outside of their homes and interact with members and patients" must receive a booster shot to be fully vaccinated, Taylor said.

Starting Jan. 17, those employees and contractors must submit full proof of vaccination or undergo weekly COVID testing and wear a face covering while at work, Taylor said.

This new policy builds off a previous one for Humana. In August 2020, Humana said that many employees would have 60 days to provide proof of vaccination after the Food and Drug Administration gave full approval to the first COVID-19 vaccine. The agency went on to give full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine later that month.

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Taylor declined to say what percentage of Humana workers are fully vaccinated and how many employees the company's vaccine policy applies to.

"Many of these employees work outside of their homes in our offices or interact with members and patients, and therefore must adhere to the vaccination requirements or testing/masking standards," Taylor said.

Humana's announcements regarding its return to work and booster requirement comes during a prolonged period of concern for Kentucky in its battle with the coronavirus. On Wednesday, Kentucky. Gov. Andy Beshear announced that the commonwealth had broken records for new cases in a single day (9,807) and positivity rate (22.89%%).

The company's decision not to return to work also could spell trouble for downtown Louisville, which has seen its preexisting office vacancy issue worsen since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

By the end of the third quarter of 2021, Class A, or the biggest, office space in Louisville's Central Business District had a vacancy rate of 24.8% — the highest Class A vacancy rate ever recorded for the area, according to a recent report from commercial real estate agency Cushman & Wakefield.

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Overall, downtown Louisville had a vacancy rate of 20.3% by the end of the third quarter of 2021, according to Cushman & Wakefield. For context: The office vacancy rate in the district at the end of 2016 was 12.8%.

Overall, filling up office spaces and returning the roughly 66,000 non-federal employees who worked in downtown Louisville before the pandemic is essential for downtown's economic recovery, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer told The Courier Journal in a December 2021 interview.

"Downtown economic recovery during the daytime is challenged by the not-complete return to work of people downtown," Fischer said. "And with this most recent news of omicron, that's not helping at all either."

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Humana delays return to office, requires COVID booster for many