-Houston Methodist Hospital told The Washington Post that it had fired staff who refused a COVID-19 shot.

-Some staff quit over the vaccine mandate, too. More than 150 staff had left or were fired, it said.

-Earlier this month a judge dismissed a lawsuit that said the mandate treated staff like "guinea pigs."

-See more stories on Insider's business page.

Houston Methodist Hospital said it had fired workers who refused to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

A spokesperson for the hospital told The Washington Post that it had either fired or accepted the resignations of 153 staff members on Tuesday, after they refused to get the vaccine.

The hospital said in late March that it would mandate COVID-19 vaccines for its 26,000 employees, and could fire staff who refused to get the jab - making it one of the first hospitals to introduce a vaccine mandate. It said it would allow religious and medical exemptions "in very rare cases."

It rolled out the policy to managers and new hires first, before expanding it to its entire workforce. CEO Marc Boom said in an internal email in March that managers would receive a list of all the employees they manage who hadn't yet received a dose of the vaccine, and gave a deadline of June 7 for people to get their shot.