Netflix to Require Vaccination for Cast & Zone A Crew Members for U.S. Productions

With COVID-19 cases beginning to ramp up across the country, Netflix will reportedly begin to require that actors and those who come in close proximity to them be vaccinated, according to a recent report from Variety. 

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The new mandate, which acts as the first in any broad production vaccine requirements from a Hollywood studio, is said to affect the casts and any “Zone A” crew members, which are those who come into close contact with actors. Netflix is said to be doing this for all of its United States productions, which means a ton of shows will be affected by the new order. 

The news comes following last week’s agreement between Hollywood unions and major studios that ushered in new protocols that allowed producers to implement mandatory vaccination policies for casts and crew in Zone A on a production-by-production basis. While most productions are taking it on a show-by-show basis, the report notes that several other series have already begun requiring crew members to be vaccinated. 

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After a spike in cases over the past couple of weeks, and the threat of the Delta variant, it seems as if Hollywood studios are bracing to try and work through what could be even more rises in COVID-19. Most recently, Sean Penn reportedly refused to return to work on his Starz limited series Gaslit until everyone involved in the production has been fully vaccinated for COVID-19.