Multnomah County employees must get vaccinated or face layoffs

Aug. 20, 2021 Updated Sat., Aug. 21, 2021 at 3:33 p.m.

By Catalina Gaitán Oregonian

COVID-related deaths in Oregon surpass 3,000

The Oregon Health Authority on Friday reported 2,187 new coronavirus cases and 19 new deaths, pushing the number of COVID-19 related deaths past 3,000.

“We grieve for every person lost to the virus,” said Oregon Health Authority director Pat Allen in a statement Friday. “Our sadness is deepened by the realization that these deaths are increasingly preventable.”

The grim milestone came as the state reported 94% of its intensive care unit beds filled, with a record 241 coronavirus patients hospitalized in the ICU Friday. Oregon also set a new record with 866 people hospitalized with COVID-19.

The summer surge of COVID-19 in Oregon, mostly caused by the coronavirus’s highly contagious delta variant, has prompted a slew of actions by county and state officials this week, including a mandate issued Friday in Multnomah County requiring county employees receive a COVID-19 vaccine or face being laid off.

Oregon on Friday again reported another day with test positivity rates in double digits, this time at 12.2%, indicating unchecked levels of virus circulating across the state. The 2,187 cases reported Friday, while lower than the previous day’s record-breaking number, is still 23% higher than the case counts reported one week earlier.

Multnomah County employees are now required to receive a COVID-19 vaccine or face getting laid off, county Chair Deborah Kafoury announced Friday. Any county employee who does not comply with the new rule will receive a layoff notice, unless they submit an approved medical or religious exemption request, the county said.

Multnomah County is the first in Oregon to institute an employee vaccine mandate.

“As the largest local safety net provider in the state, we need to assure our workforce is able to show up and safely serve the people of this community,” Kafoury wrote to all county employees in an email Friday.

Anyone who initially refuses to get vaccinated and receives a layoff notice, but then changes their mind, will have their layoff notice rescinded, the county said.

The employee vaccine mandate is part of the county’s two-part strategy to slow the spread of COVID-19 by requiring masks in indoor public spaces and promoting vaccinations. The coronavirus’s delta variant is causing a record-breaking surge in hospitalizations and COVID-19-related deaths across the state and pushing the region’s hospital systems to their limits.

Kafoury said the county’s rule is in compliance with new statewide mandates announced Thursday requiring that all health care workers and staff in K-12 education be vaccinated. The county is extending that rule to their more than 6,000 employees.

Gov. Kate Brown is requiring proof of vaccination from health care and education workers by Oct. 18 or six weeks after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves COVID-19 vaccines, whichever date comes later. Kafoury said the county plans to follow the same deadlines.