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Santa Clara County health officials have revised a health order that required all high-risk workers to receive COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots or be transferred to other jobs, the county announced Monday.
Employees with religious and medical exemptions can now remain in their current positions but they must follow strict protocols, according to a new county health order. The new rules are effective on Tuesday, March 8.
The order revises a previous Dec. 28, 2021 mandate, which required that all personnel in high-risk settings such as jails and skilled nursing facilities be fully vaccinated and boosted when eligible, or be assigned to another position. The December order was instituted during a surge of the highly transmissible omicron variant. A significant drop in case numbers in recent weeks led county officials to revise the order, however.
Under the March 7 order, all personnel in high-risk settings must still be fully vaccinated and receive their boosters. The new order allows employees who are vetted and approved for a medical or religious exemption from vaccination to stay in their positions, provided they are tested regularly and are required to follow certain mask protocols.
The unvaccinated exempt workers must be tested for COVID-19 at least once a week — at least twice a week for personnel who work in general acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities and jails — using either a PCR or rapid test. They must also wear a surgical mask or higher-level respiratory protection such as a KN95, KF94 or N95 respirator mask at all times while in the facility or while providing patient care if they are emergency medical responders.
While the number of cases has declined, health officials are still concerned that additional variants might emerge that will again cause a surge. The order therefore strongly recommends that all personnel continue to be fully vaccinated and boosted.
“Ensuring that individuals working in higher-risk settings are both vaccinated and boosted when eligible is critical given the anticipated emergence of new COVID-19 variants, the risk that health systems will be overwhelmed if there is another surge in cases, and other ongoing risks associated with COVID-19,” the order noted.
Personnel in high-risk settings also can expose vulnerable populations who are at increased risk of severe illness and death, such as the elderly. Congregate facilities, jails, skilled nursing and other such facilities also can have large outbreaks, according to the order.
Two lawsuits filed on Feb. 18, one by Firefighters4Freedom in Santa Clara County Superior Court and another filed by county workers as the nonprofit UnifySCC in federal civil court are challenging the county’s vaccine and booster mandate for workers in high-risk settings and claim First Amendment and religious freedoms violations.