No vaccine mandates are coming for city of Kent employees.
“The City of Kent hasn’t imposed and doesn’t expect to impose a vaccine mandate for city employees,” City Chief Administrative Officer Derek Matheson said in an Aug. 30 email.
Matheson said 70.7% (478 out of 676) city employees have voluntarily attested they are fully vaccinated.
“There could be more employees who are fully vaccinated and for some reason have chosen not to disclose it,” he said.
Gov. Jay Inslee has said most state employees, health care workers, education and child care employees need to be vaccinated no later than Oct. 18. The city of Seattle and King County implemented similar mandates. Employee groups are fighting the mandates from the state, King County and Seattle.
Because of the pandemic that initially led to many city of Kent employees working remotely, fewer city employees are working in office buildings.
Matheson said the city ended its pandemic-related telecommuting in July and replaced it with a new, long-term telecommuting policy under which many office employees are working from home three days a week, which he said helps with social distancing in the offices.
The Kent City Council recently returned to in-person meetings after Zoom meetings for more than a year.
“We plan to continue in-person council meetings with masks, and we’ll continue to offer public comment by Zoom or telephone for people who aren’t comfortable coming to City Hall,” Matheson said.
King County cases rise
Meanwhile, cases continue to increase in King County. The county had a seven-day average of 582 positive cases, according to an Aug. 27 state Department of Health update. Those are the highest case numbers since November to January and way up from the seven-day average of 66 cases in late June.
This increase comes in spite of the fact over 70% of people ages 12 and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 in King County.
The Delta variant accounts for nearly all the increase in cases, according to state health officials. Unvaccinated people have driven the spike in cases and hospitalizations.
More than 94% of COVID-19 patients hospitalized between Feb. 1 and Aug. 3 were not fully vaccinated, according to state Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah.
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