As Major League Baseball transitioned back to a normal 162-game schedule this year, many of the health and safety protocols from the shortened 2020 season remained in place.
While players and coaches were still subject to weekly coronavirus (COVID-19) testing, the league vowed to lift some of the restrictions for teams who received their shots.
The Los Angeles Dodgers were one of the first organizations to reach the 85% vaccination threshold for Tier 1 individuals (players, coaches, and those with direct access to them), and with just over two weeks left in the regular season, most teams can say the same.
With positive COVID-19 cases on the rise again due to the highly contagious Delta variant, several notable companies are now requiring their employees to be vaccinated.
According to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, MLB is imposing their own mandate for non-playing personnel to receive at least the first dose of a vaccine by the start of the postseason:
MLB will require non-playing personnel (managers, coaches, athletic trainers, etc.) to be vaccinated for COVID-19 in order to gain access to field and other restricted areas in postseason, sources tell @TheAthletic. 1/2
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) September 17, 2021
Sources add: Any staff member who is currently unvaccinated but wants to retain access to restricted areas during postseason may do so if staff member receives one dose of one of the Moderna vaccines prior to October 4 and has a second dose scheduled.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) September 17, 2021
In addition to becoming one of the first teams to reach the 85% vaccination threshold for Tier 1 individuals, the Dodgers have been proactive in encouraging fans to get their shots as well.
The club hosted a small vaccination clinic in the center field plaza at Dodger Stadium earlier this season and rewarded the first 1,000 fans with a voucher for two tickets to a future home game.
Betts raised vaccine awareness
As part of the Dodgers’ efforts to raise awareness for the vaccine, Mookie Betts appeared at a local Ralphs this past July, where he greeted customers and helped inform those in search of more information regarding the vaccine.
“Just trying to get the world back to normal,” Betts said of his participation. “Just pretty much everything in that realm, don’t want more people to get sick and like I said, just return to normal. That’s step one.”
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