Lane County to implement vaccine requirement for employees, with November deadline

Lane County announced Thursday it will require all of its employees and volunteers to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 by Nov. 30.

These public employees will join Oregon's health care workers and school staff, who will also need to show proof of vaccination or a valid exemption in the next month, or risk losing their jobs. 

"As the public health authority for our community, one of the largest public service employers in the region and the organization leading efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 across our county for the past 18 months, we feel a deep sense of responsibility to walk our talk when it comes to science-backed methods to keep people safe from COVID-19,” said Lane County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky in the announcement. “We respect the diversity of opinions on this issue, and our decision has come after much discussion, consideration and reflection."

Employees who are subject to the requirement who are not vaccinated by the Nov. 30 deadline and who do not have an approved medical or religious exception, will be subject to provisional layoff.

Some personnel cannot be required to be vaccinated, due to state law that prohibits employers requiring it for these groups. Law enforcement and parole officers, for example, cannot be required to get the vaccine. 

School employees and health care workers will have to show proof of vaccination first, meeting their own state-mandated deadline of Oct. 18. 

Daily case counts for Lane County

As of Wednesday, 245,528 people in Lane County had received first or second doses of the vaccine — or 64.38% of the total population — with 458,834 first and second doses administered, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

On Thursday, Lane County reported 188 confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19, bringing the countywide case count to 23,506. The death toll remained at 244. Thursday broke a nine-day streak of daily death reports that began Sept. 7.

There were 856 reported infectious, a slight increase from Wednesday's 850, and 69 people hospitalized, up eight from Wednesday. Of those 69 hospitalized, 17 were in intensive care, up three from Wednesday, and 10 were on ventilators, up two from Wednesday.

Of the 69 hospitalized Lane County COVID-19 patients, 84.1%, or 58 of the 69, are unvaccinated, Lane County Public Health reported.

Register-Guard Digital Editor John Heasly contributed to this story.

Contact reporter Jordyn Brown at jbrown@registerguard.com or 541-246-4264, and follow her on Twitter @thejordynbrown and Instagram @registerguard. Support local journalism, subscribe to The Register-Guard.