Dr. Doug Koekkoek is Peacehealth Chief Physician. He said the requirement is in response to the growing number of coronavirus cases in the community.
“We’ve gone from just 24 patients in our COVID units in Peacehealth on July 16th to 107 this morning,” Koekkoek said. “It’s increasing every single day. We had 20 new admissions overnight. This is a public health emergency that requires immediate action.”
Koekkoek added that the majority of their COVID patients are unvaccinated. He said about 80% of their employees across the hospital system have been vaccinated against Covid-19. They will allow medical exemptions.
Oregon law prohibits vaccination as a condition of employment for health workers. But Oregon Health and Sciences University and Kaiser Permanente have also announced COVID-19 vaccine requirements. And the U.S. Veteran’s Administration has also enacted a similar rule.