VA Mandates Vaccines for Health Care Workers “It’s the best way to keep veterans safe, especially as the Delta variant spreads across the country,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. The Veterans Affairs Department announced on Monday it will require all frontline healthcare workers to get vaccinated, making it the first federal agency to issue any sort of coronavirus vaccine mandate. The mandate will apply to Title 38 health care employees who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit the facilities or provide direct care to individuals the VA serves. The order covers about 115,000 employees, according to Government Executive reported last year about the vast health and safety issues VA employees were facing in the beginning of the pandemic.