Inslee announces COVID vaccine mandate for all Washington K-12 school employees, childcare workers – By Alec Regimbal (Seattle P-I) / Aug 18 2021
Workers in Washington’s K-12 schools, public and private universities, and in most childcare centers must get vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18, Gov. Jay Inslee announced at a press conference Wednesday. If they don’t, they could be fired.
The mandate comes as COVID cases are spiking across the state. Health experts say that the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus is responsible for the surge. They also warn that the variant poses a greater risk to children, most of whom are slated to start school in the coming weeks.
“The more people that get vaccinated, the closer we will be to being able to stop transmission of this virus,” Inslee said. “I am convinced that we are at the point in this pandemic that, without these vaccine requirements, we will continue to be susceptible to new variants. So, this is the right thing to do to save lives in the state of Washington.”
Data from the state Health Department shows that Washington is averaging nearly 3,000 new cases a day, and hospitalizations have risen 64% in the last two weeks. The department doesn’t track increases in infections among children over time, but nationally, the CDC reports that an average of 272 people under 18 are contracting COVID every week — an increase of 22% since June.
