Contra Costa employers urged to consider requiring employee vaccination
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CA (July 24, 2021) — With COVID-19 cases rapidly on the rise, unvaccinated individuals bear considerable risk for serious illness and death. Because of this, health officers of Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and San Francisco counties strongly urge all employers to consider implementing workplace COVID-19 safety policies. This means requiring their workforce to get fully vaccinated as soon as possible.
For any employees not yet fully vaccinated, employers must require and enforce masking under current state law. In addition, the state enourages employers to require frequent COVID-19 testing of 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.”
California relaxed community and workplace transmission protections since mid-June. However, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is much more contagious than the original strains of the virus. This has led to significantly higher case rates and a higher risk of transmission at businesses and workplaces as a result.
Critical role
Employers can play a critical role in ensuring a safe workplace environment. They can also boost vaccination rates among working-age individuals by requiring vaccination as a condition of employment. They can implement very limited exceptions for medical exemptions or strongly held religious beliefs.
Local and national data show that fully vaccinated people catch COVID-19 at a far lower rate. They also require less hospitalization than unvaccinated people.
“A universal vaccination policy may benefit businesses because the quarantine requirements are different for vaccinated and unvaccinated workers,” said Dr. Susan Philip, San Francisco’s health officer. “Currently, an unvaccinated employee must quarantine for at least 10 days if exposed to someone who tested positive, whereas fully vaccinated workers do not need to quarantine unless they have symptoms.”
Officials recommend requiring documentation of COVID-19 vaccination rather than self-attestation. This represents a best practice for employers to ensure workers adhere to the workplace protections.
Current state and federal employment law support employers requiring documentation of vaccination status, requiring vaccination as a condition of employment, and requiring additional safety precautions including masking and frequent testing for unvaccinated employees. Resources are available via the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing.
Effective and safe
“Eight months since the first COVID-19 vaccine was administered, COVID-19 vaccines have proven highly effective, and very safe,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer and Director of Public Health for the County of Santa Clara. “We encourage employers to take strong action to promote COVID-19 safe workplaces through vaccination and other workplace safety requirements.”
For information about finding a safe, free and convenient COVID-19 vaccine, visit coronavirus.cchealth.org/get-vaccinated.