With COVID-19 cases on the rise, health officers of Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and San Francisco counties strongly joined together Thursday morning to recommend employers implement workplace COVID-19 safety policies, including requiring employees to get vaccinated.
Any employees who are not fully vaccinated must adhere to proper masking at all times and employers are encouraged to require frequent COVID-19 testing for unvaccinated employees.
"Workers who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 pose a substantial health and financial risk to the workplace," said Dr. Chris Farnitano, Contra Costa County’s health officer. "Most importantly, workplace exposures have led to serious illnesses and deaths."
The reopening of the state earlier this summer and the growing threat of the Delta variant has led to significantly higher case rates, and a potentially higher risk of transmission at businesses and workplaces.
According to Farnitano, the current surge is driven by unvaccinated working adults, between the ages of 25 to 50, which have the highest case rates. While over 80% of adults in Contra Costa are at least partially vaccinated, only 65% of those in their 20s are vaccinated, he said.
The health officials said that they want to empower employers to ensure a safe workplace environment by requiring vaccination. There are limited exceptions for medical exemptions or strongly held religious beliefs.
Employers should also require documentation of COVID-19 vaccination rather than self-reporting, they said.
