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San Diego County to employees: Get the COVID-19 vaccine or get tested regularly

San Diego County.
San Diego County will require that all of its employees get a coronavirus vaccine or get regular testing for the virus.
((Hayne Palmour IV / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
)

Federal, state and local officials want to curtail a coronavirus surge fueled by Delta variant

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San Diego County announced this week that it will require its employees to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or undergo regular testing.

The new policy will take effect by mid-August, according to the agency. The county employs 18,000 people, making it the fifth-largest employer in the region, according to the county’s latest financial report.

“Vaccination is the key to fully and safely reopening the economy,” said the county in a tweet issued Thursday night.

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The county, which is still working through the details of the new policy, hasn’t specified how often unvaccinated employees would have to get tested. The organization also hasn’t said how it will verify employee vaccination status, though it could do so using the digital vaccine verification system the state launched in June or by checking the region’s immunization registry, which the county manages.

The announcement comes after local officials have spent months encouraging San Diegans to get vaccinated against the coronavirus. But while 2 million residents have been fully immunized, cases and hospitalizations are again on the rise. A month ago, daily cases hovered around 100 new infections; 700 or more cases a day is now the norm. And the number of San Diegans in the hospital with COVID-19 has more than tripled, going from around 70 to 90 in late June to 269 as of the county’s latest coronavirus update.

Infectious disease experts point to the Delta variant of the coronavirus as the main reason for this rapid rise. This viral strain, first identified in India, likely accounts for about 80 percent of new cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority of those cases have been among those who are not fully vaccinated.

The CDC announced on Tuesday that it’s now asking all Americans, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks in indoor public spaces if they’re living in an area where the coronavirus is spreading quickly. Later that day, the county issued its own recommendation for San Diegans to follow the new CDC guidance.

But the county is not requiring indoor masking for all, unlike Los Angeles County, simply recommending it. And for now, the county’s policy among its own employees is the same as its guidance to the public, only requiring indoor masking for those who are not fully vaccinated.

With cases rising quickly across the nation, state and federal officials are taking more aggressive steps to slow the virus’s spread, too. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that California’s employees and health care workers must get vaccinated or regularly tested. And President Joe Biden made a similar announcement for federal employees on Thursday, adding that the military will consider requiring coronavirus vaccinations.

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