By Pepper Fisher

OLYMPIA — Governor Inslee announced Monday that Washington state workers and those working in private medical or long-term care jobs will be required to show proof of vaccination by Oct. 18 or will lose their jobs.

Weekly testing will not be an option for those who want to avoid vaccination and keep their jobs, and the only opt-out of the requirement is either a medical or religious exemption.

Clallam County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry reacted today.

“I 100% support a healthcare worker mandate. I’m really glad that he took this step. I know some folks have raised concerns that people might leave the profession. And so far, we really haven’t seen that happen in other states and other localities that have put these kind of measures in place. People like this work and they want to keep doing it. And when these mandates come forward, the vast majority of people just go ahead and get vaccinated.”

The order comes just days after we leaned that 4 employees of Olympic Medical Center have tested positive for Covid-19, causing a section of a clinic to be shut down for a few days.

That’s as cases skyrocket here in Clallam County, with over 200 new cases in the last 2 weeks and another death reported today.

“I am deeply concerned about the case numbers that we’re seeing in Clallam and Jefferson County. In both counties we have higher rates of covid-19 than we have ever had in the pandemic. Things are really critical right now. We’re seeing dramatic rise in cases. We are starting to see strain on both our hospital systems again. And unfortunately, we have had another death, and I am concerned that that is just the first of many we are going to see.”

Dr. Berry has confirmed testing shows that a recent large outbreak at a local church was the Delta variant, so we know it’s here, and has been for weeks.

“And you get one positive case in a room of folks with not much ventilation and no masking. And nearly everybody gets it. Mostly unvaccinated folks, of course.”