One person presents his vaccine card at the Liberty Theater in Camas, Washington. (Photo by Nathan Howard / Getty Images)
A public health order was enforced last week in Clallam and Jefferson counties, which required vaccination tests for patrons entering an indoor restaurant or bar. As to why officials opted for this measure, the health agent, Dr. Allison Berry, spoke with KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson program to explain it.
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In practice, the order stipulates that all restaurant and indoor bar patrons show vaccination tests as a requirement for entry, except children under the age of 12 and employees of companies that are stored continuously while working. .
This is happening as COVID-19 cases in both counties have extended local hospitals to their limits, Berry warns. The hope is that requiring vaccinations for people in restaurants and bars can help address this by minimizing exposure in crowded indoor spaces.
“The main problem here is to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading in these high-risk areas,” he explained, noting an outbreak in a single bar that began with 17 infections and subsequently reached more than 100 cases. “In Clallam and Jefferson counties, our health care system is overwhelmed: we can’t provide the kind of health care people are used to receiving and we don’t have enough beds or enough people to give them staff.”
“We need to curb the tide of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, and vaccines are the most effective way to do that,” he added.
Berry also clarified that the biggest goal is to exhaust all possible options to avoid having to close businesses.
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“When you see hospitals stretching above capacity, you would normally see that businesses were closed and we don’t want to do that,” he noted. “I want to try to find a way to keep these bars and restaurants open.”
The new requirements go beyond that, however, with Dr. Berry pointing out other basic security restrictions considered part of a “social contract in this country.” This goes from the rules against smoking inside to not speeding in school areas, which exist under a guiding principle:
“I don’t think we have a right to endanger other people,” Berry described. “To operate a business, you must have a wide variety of licenses; to maintain these licenses, you must follow the laws of the region where your business exists. If you do not follow these laws, if you do not comply with the basic health codes of the company. area in which you operate your business, these licenses may be revoked and this has always been true. “
Listen to the Dori Monson Show in the afternoon between noon and 3pm on KIRO radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to podcast here.