What are Pierce County and Tacoma doing amid new wave of COVID-19 vaccine mandates?
While the state, King County and Seattle announced new vaccine mandates for state, city and county workers and for private health care workers, “Mandate Monday” didn’t necessarily extend to Pierce County.
While Pierce County has offered new incentives to workers to encourage vaccines, neither the county nor city of Tacoma announced any COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“Executive (Bruce) Dammeier supports incentives but not mandating the COVID-19 vaccine for Pierce County employees,” spokeswoman Libby Catalinich told The News Tribune via email in response to questions about the state’s actions. “He authorized a new benefit to encourage county employees to become vaccinated.”
Pierce County announced Friday four hours of extra vacation time for county workers who choose to be vaccinated by mid-October.
“These hours provide time for individuals who haven’t been vaccinated to schedule time for an appointment while also helping to alleviate concerns about time off for any potential reaction to the vaccine. In addition, the four hours of leave acknowledges those who already took time to get the vaccine,” the email sent to county workers said.
To qualify, workers need to receive their vaccines by Oct. 15, a few days before the state worker deadline of Oct. 18.
Maria Lee, media representative for the city of Tacoma, responded via email to questions Monday as to whether new mandates would be coming for city workers.
Lee said the city is evaluating recommendations from the CDC, state Department of Health and guidance from the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department “to determine how those recommendations will apply to city employees and members of the public, when in City-owned facilities.”
“At this time, consistent with previous public health recommendations, city employees who enter City-owned facilities and have provided proof to their supervisors of their fully vaccinated status can go unmasked, while those who have not must remain masked,” she wrote.
She added, “The City has not asked for vaccination status from members of the public, or monitored whether or not members of the public choose to go masked or unmasked.”
As of Aug. 4, 52.39 percent of Pierce County’s population has initiated vaccination, according to figures posted by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, with 46.3 percent fully vaccinated.
The county has reported more than 1,000 new cases in just four days, with 521 new cases over the weekend and more than 500 cases over Thursday and Friday.
The Department of Health has reported that 98 percent of Pierce County cases between February and June were among those not fully vaccinated.
This story was originally published August 9, 2021 at 2:20 PM.
