Kennett Square, Pa.-based Genesis HealthCare on Monday announced it has vaccinated all of its staff, barring those with medical or religious exemptions.

While Genesis said it met the first deadline under its COVID-19 inoculation policy announced earlier this month, it did not reveal how many employees were terminated as part of its mandate.

“While we unfortunately had some employees who were not willing to comply with the policy, despite the looming federal mandate, we met our deadline of 100% vaccinated staff,” Lori Mayer, spokesperson with Genesis HealthCare, said in a statement.

Genesis workers — approximately 40,000 across more than 200 facilities — were required to get the first shot of Pfizer or Moderna, or the single-dose Janssen COVID-19 vaccine by Aug. 23; Second shots must be completed by Sept. 22, the nursing home provider said.

Genesis is the nation’s largest nursing home provider.

The decision came weeks before the Biden administration issued a federal regulation requiring all nursing home workers to get vaccinated — operators could face Medicare and Medicaid withholdings if they don’t make vaccinations a term of employment.

“Over the last several weeks, both in our initial pilots and our company-wide rollout, we found a growing proportion of our colleagues willing to become vaccinated,” Mayer said in the prepared statement. “Thoughtful and supportive dialogue, clinician-led and peer discussions about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines and the looming federal mandate all played important roles in seeing the vast majority of our unvaccinated employees choose to become vaccinated.”

Between Genesis’s announcement and the federal mandate, the national percentage of vaccinated staff per facility increased from 58% to 61.1%.

Like other leaders in the skilled nursing space, Genesis called for a federal mandate to vaccinate workers across the care continuum rather than singling out the nursing home industry.

“The long-term care industry needs a coordinated public policy response where all employees working in a caregiving role supported by federal dollars are subject to the same vaccination mandate,” said Mayer. “Without equal treatment across healthcare, there will be a severe staffing shortage in skilled nursing.”

Genesis said it is “hopeful” that short-term and long-term funding via state and federal dollars will stabilize the market and offer competitive wages for existing and prospective skilled nursing staff.