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In what officials called the first such requirement in the country, California on Thursday ordered healthcare workers statewide to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in early fall.
The new mandate applies to employees of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, clinics, doctor’s offices, hospice facilities, dialysis centers and most other healthcare facilities, and states that they complete their inoculation regimen by September 30.
“As we continue to see an increase in cases and hospitalizations due to the Delta variant of COVID-19, it is important that we protect vulnerable patients in these settings,” Dr Tomás Aragón, head of public health at the ‘State and Director of the Department of California. of public health, said in a statement. “Today’s action will also ensure that healthcare workers themselves are protected. Vaccines are how we are ending this pandemic. “
The state has also ordered hospitals, skilled nursing homes and intermediate care facilities to verify that visitors inside are either fully vaccinated or tested negative for the coronavirus within 72 hours of arrival.
It wasn’t until last week that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that healthcare workers in California would soon either have to show proof of their immunization status or undergo regular testing.
The new order largely removes the testing option and only allows religious or medical exemptions limited to the vaccine requirement.
Exempt employees should be tested regularly – twice a week if they work in acute or long-term care facilities and once a week in other health facilities.
Unvaccinated employees should also wear a surgical mask or respirator, such as an N95, inside an establishment.
Thursday’s announcement is the latest in a series of decisions taken by public agencies and private employers to require workers to show they have been vaccinated against COVID-19, or have recently tested negative, as part normal to their activities.
That list includes the state of California, which has some 246,000 employees showing they have been vaccinated, with those who are not vaccinated being tested regularly.
Kaiser Permanente has said it will make vaccines mandatory for all its employees and doctors. And on Wednesday night, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors chairperson Hilda Solis issued an executive order requiring the county’s 110,000 employees to document their inoculation status by Oct. 1.
The Los Angeles County Superior Court, the nation’s largest court system, also told employees on Thursday that they could be fired if they don’t get a full vaccine quickly once a COVID-19 vaccine is received. final government approval.
As California grapples with the latest wave of coronavirus, officials and experts stress that the surest way to curb transmission is for more people to get vaccinated.
To date, about 62% of Californians have received at least one dose and about 54% are fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by The Times.
Although the pace of state vaccines is much slower than seen earlier in the deployment, the rate of gunfire has increased in recent weeks, coinciding with both the announcement of new requirements and increased circulation. of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
From July 25 to 31, providers across California administered an average of nearly 44,000 first doses of the vaccine per day, a 41% increase from two weeks ago, according to data from The Times.
A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their last dose, which means those who have only recently rolled up their sleeves still have a way to go before they achieve maximum protection.
In the meantime, some counties, notably Los Angeles, have turned to other measures in hopes of slowing the spread.
LA began requiring everyone, even those fully vaccinated, to wear masks in indoor public spaces in mid-July – a mandate that has since been replicated in other parts of the state, including much of the bay area.
While it’s still early days, LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said there were promising signs ordering masks might have the desired effect.
Although newly confirmed cases have continued to increase in the region, the rate of increase has slowed. Ferrer said LA County saw a 22% increase in reported coronavirus cases the week ending August 1 compared to the previous week; while the rest of the state saw a 57% jump.
“One of the big differences between us and the other counties was that we were the only county at the time to require indoor masking,” she told reporters on Thursday. “It’s hard to say with 100% certainty that this is the factor that caused us to slow the spread slightly compared to other places, but I know for sure that it helped – simply because the data [are] really conclusive on the importance of masking indoors and how it, in fact, reduces transmission. “
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