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The order, issued Thursday by the California Department of Public Health, is different from what Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said last month when he announced that health workers would have the choice of getting vaccinated or getting their own. submit to weekly tests.
Now, the order does not give health workers a choice. He says everyone must be fully vaccinated by the end of September, except for people who refuse the vaccine due to religious belief or workers who cannot be vaccinated for a qualifying medical reason supported by a note signed by a licensed healthcare professional.
The change comes as California experiences the fastest increase in new cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic, with an average of 18.3 new cases per 100,000 people per day. Most of the state’s new infections are caused by the delta variant, a more contagious version of the coronavirus which the state says “can cause more serious illness.”
“An increasing number of health workers are among the new positive cases, although vaccinations were a priority for this group when vaccines first became available,” said Dr Tomás J. Aragón, head of public health at California. “Recent outbreaks in health facilities have often been attributed to unvaccinated staff members. “
Gabe Montoya, paramedic at Kaiser Downey Medical Center and executive committee member of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, said that “vaccines are an essential tool in the fight against this virus,” adding that “workers must have a voice at the bargaining table whenever new conditions are imposed on our work.
“We risked our lives for a year and a half doing this on a daily basis – at a very high cost to ourselves and to our families,” said Montoya.
The order represents a new hard line in the quest of public health leaders to convince those hesitant to receive the vaccine. Several states are focusing on healthcare workers as they work with vulnerable patients.
But other states with similar requirements have exceptions, such as Oregon, where healthcare workers can instead undergo regular COVID-19 testing. In Maryland, the vaccination mandate only applies to certain state employees, such as those who work in health facilities under the state health department.
In California, vaccination mandates are perilous for Newsom, which faces a recall election next month fueled in part by anger over its handling of the pandemic. Newsom angered many parents by continuing to demand indoor masks in all public schools, but he did not demand that all teachers and staff be vaccinated.
Some California local governments are going beyond the new rule. In Los Angeles County, some 110,000 public servants have until Oct. 1 to get vaccinated under a new order issued by the chairman of the supervisory board, Hilda L. Solis.
She noted that about 4 million of the county’s roughly 10 million people remain unvaccinated. The Los Angeles ordinance does not specify penalties for employees who refuse to be vaccinated.
The city of San Jose, in Silicon Valley, California, also requires about 8,000 workers to be vaccinated or provide weekly proof of negative COVID-19 tests. It may possibly impose vaccination, with exceptions for medical or religious reasons.
Meanwhile, a letter to the estimated 5,000 staff members of the Los Angeles County Superior Court – the nation’s largest court system – ordered them to either get a full shot or be fired. The letter says workers must show proof of vaccination no later than 45 days after the Federal Food and Drug Administration gives final approval to any of the vaccines available in the United States, the Los Angeles Times reported.
These two mandates provide exceptions for people for medical or religious reasons.
California’s new vaccine mandate is broad and applies to workers in most healthcare facilities, including hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, mental hospitals, adult day care centers, dialysis centers, hospices, clinics and doctor’s offices.
“The first vaccines that went into guns, we were excited. In fact, most of us cried,” said Amber Ugarte, a Bay Area health worker. “So seeing that now healthcare workers are all going to be covered is exciting for a lot of us. It’s hard for me to understand why people wouldn’t want it.”
Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the California Hospital Association, called the vaccination mandate “a milestone in the long battle we face against COVID-19 and the myriad variants that have emerged.”
“We are once again on a dangerous precipice that requires both our courage and our goodwill to protect our loved ones and our neighbors,” Coyle said. “California healthcare workers are called upon – as they have done at every stage of this pandemic – to lead the charge in the battle between the vaccine and the variant.”
In a separate order, the state instructed hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities to verify that all visitors had been vaccinated or tested negative for COVID-19 at least three days before a visit to the hospital. inside. The state said it would give its updated guidelines for long-term care facilities “in the near future.”
“It was tricky because they let in visitors,” Ugarte said of his workplace. “It’s been a scary situation – sometimes when you’re talking face to face, and you don’t know that person isn’t spreading or excreting the virus.”
With California’s two new public health orders, insurance will soon come from both sides.
“They no longer have to guess whether the person caring for them has been vaccinated or not,” said Roy Ongpin, an emergency room technician in southern San Francisco.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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