Vaccination proof to be required for health workers

The state announced it will require all public and private health workers and state employees to show proof.

As the highly contagious delta variant drives up COVID-19 cases throughout well-vaccinated California, the state announced Monday it will require all public and private health workers as well as state employees to show proof they had the shots or be subject to at least weekly testing for the disease.

The order, which comes amid alarm among health experts about the highly contagious delta variant and calls for tougher action and mandates, means health and state workers will no longer be allowed to “self-attest” that they are vaccinated.

“We’re here at an important juncture in the history of this pandemic,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference at a Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland. “Because too many people have chosen to live with this virus, we’re at a point in this pandemic where individual’s choice not to get vaccinated is now impacting the rest of us and in a profound and devastating and deadly way.”

The new requirement comes amid a sharp upturn in COVID-19 case rates, mostly among those who have not been vaccinated. According to the California Department of Public Health, the daily case rate per 100,000 people is about 2 for the vaccinated and 14 for the unvaccinated.

Health care workers, along with elderly residents of long-term care facilities, were among the first to be prioritized for the vaccines when they were first being administered in December.

It’s unclear how many health care and state workers remain unvaccinated in California.

Figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate California has one of the highest rates among the states — and particularly, large populous states — for at least partly vaccinating those eligible, with 75% of people age 12 and older having at least one of what is often a two-dose vaccine shot. That matches the rate in Pennsylvania and is higher than the 72.3% in New York, 65.1% in Florida and 61% in Texas.

But children under age 12, as well as people with certain medical conditions, cannot be vaccinated, and along with those who have chosen not to get the shots, that leaves many people in the state and across the country in whom the virus can and is spreading.

Only 52.3% of all Californians are fully vaccinated, compared with 56.6% in New York, 51.8% in Pennsylvania, 48.5% in Florida and 43.4% in Texas.

State officials said vaccinations have picked up around the state amid alarm over the highly contagious delta variant.

Check back more on this developing story.