Alameda County will require first responders who work in, or even enter, high-risk health care facilities to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 21. Otherwise, they will have to mask and submit to weekly testing.
Law enforcement, fire and providers of 911 ambulance and non-emergency transport must complete their vaccination series by the first day of winter, Alameda County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss ordered on Tuesday. County officials said "the nature of their professions" puts these workers at high risk of spreading COVID-19 to patients, county residents with compromised immune systems and health care staff.
Under the order, employers can choose to require full vaccination without a testing-based alternative.
"Despite this option, each employer should consider requiring COVID-19 vaccination for all workers to protect the health of their workforce," Moss wrote in the order, which was drafted on Nov. 3 and went into effect at midnight on Tuesday. He added that "employer vaccination requirements can limit staffing disruptions due to illness and quarantine requirements."
The California Department of Public Health previously required "all workers who provide services or work in" health care settings to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 30, providing exemptions for religious or medical reasons. Law enforcement and ambulance workers weren't specifically listed in the initial order, which included but was "not limited to" a number of other professions.
The City of Oakland, meanwhile, required all of its employees to be fully vaccinated by Nov. 15, which is also the last day city employees, including police officers and firefighters, can submit a request for a medical or religious exemption. A union representing firefighters in Oakland and Alameda County said in August they opposed mandating the vaccine for its members.
Alameda County had vaccinated 71.7% of its population as of Tuesday, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Alameda and San Mateo counties were the only ones in the Bay Area on Tuesday experiencing what the agency considers a "moderate" rate of spread.
Moss wrote in the order that the county had experienced "a concerning increase in COVID-19 cases and outbreaks among staff and residents in long-term care facilities and in other high-risk congregate settings" as the delta variant spread earlier this year.
"Given the older and medically frail population in these settings, the risk of hospitalization and death due to COVID-19 remains high," he wrote of health care facilities.
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