Employees, contractors and volunteers at Washington State University will no longer be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting Nov. 1.
According to a news release, the university has seen success in COVID-19 vaccination attempts. The decision to lift vaccination mandates was in alignment with Gov. Jay Inslee’s announcement to end remaining COVID-19 emergency orders and the state of emergency in Washington.
The governor declared a little more than a year ago that public employees in Washington had to be vaccinated, said Phil Weiler, vice president of marketing and communications at WSU. So when Inslee opted to lift these requirements, WSU decided to do the same, Weiler added.
Weiler said though the mandate will be lifted in most settings, there are certain employment situations where vaccines will still be required. Faculty members who work in clinical and health care settings will still need to be vaccinated.
The university’s vaccine mandate led to the dismissal of some WSU employees last October, the most prominent being football coach Nick Rolovich.
WSU will continue requiring students to be vaccinated for the rest of the academic year. Weiler said there are a couple of reasons for this decision, including the fact many students on the Pullman campus live in congregate housing, where a virus could more easily spread. Another reason is students attending classes are already immunized, and the university feels it’s best to address this COVID-19 policy at the end of the academic year.
“When we finish classes in May, we’ll take a step back and decide whether we want to continue to have mandatory vaccinations in place for students,” Weiler said. “We’ll evaluate whether it makes sense to keep it in place or not then.”
The university strongly encourages the community to follow recommendations provided by the CDC and Washington State Department of Health, including receiving or updating COVID-19 vaccinations, according to the news release.
More information on WSU’s vaccination policy is available at bit.ly/3MVanlL.
Virus death reported in Latah County
Latah County added its 52nd death from COVID-19 this week, according to figures posted on the Public Health – Idaho North Central District website.
The person who died was a man in his 60s.
Latah County added six new cases while Whitman County had about 19 more. The total of 25 new infections is smaller than recent weekly reports, though the official total doesn’t included cases discovered with home tests.
Pearce can be reached at epearce@dnews.com or on Twitter @Emily_A_Pearce. The Lewiston Tribune’s Matt Baney contributed to this report.
