• CNN fired three staffers for coming into the office while unvaccinated, The New York Times reports.
  • The network has a "zero-tolerance policy" for being unvaccinated, per CEO Jeff Zucker.
  • Multiple news organizations are now requiring COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.
Jeff Zucker CNN
CNN leader and WarnerMedia News and Sports Chairman Jeff Zucker
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CNN fired three staffers for violating company policy by coming into the office unvaccinated against COVID-19, The New York Times' Michael Grynbaum and the network's Oliver Darcy report.

CNN has a "zero-tolerance policy" for employees being unvaccinated in the office, Grynbaum and Darcy reported, citing a memo from CEO Jeff Zucker.

"In the past week, we have been made aware of three employees who were coming to the office unvaccinated. All three have been terminated. Let me be clear – we have a zero-tolerance policy on this," the memo said, per Darcy.

The network is one of several news organizations, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, Politico, and Insider, that will require staffers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition of employment or if they want to come back to work in person.

A representative for CNN didn't immediately return Insider's request for comment.

Read more: 'The Masked Singer' set was hit with 12 COVID cases but won't stop filming. Here's why and what the Delta variant could mean for other productions.

In the same memo, Zucker announced that CNN would delay its mandatory return to office from September 7 likely to "mid-October" due to the surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, according to Darcy.

"I think it is fair to say that we are all feeling a mix of anticipation, anxiety, frustration, confusion, and exasperation...I get it," Zucker wrote in the memo.

The rise in Delta variant infections, the vast majority of which are among the unvaccinated, has scrambled return-to-office plans and driven many companies in the private sector to reinstate mask mandates and take a harder line on requiring vaccination from COVID-19.

As of Thursday, 70.8% of Americans 18 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 60.8% considered fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

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