The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to end the weekly COVID-19 testing requirement for most of the county’s unvaccinated employees, which has been in place since September.
The county reports a 83.5% COVID-19 vaccination rate among its 4,235 workers, which is higher than the community’s vaccination rate. About 73% of age-eligible county residents are fully vaccinated for COVID-19.
The supervisors voted 4-1 to end the weekly testing policy on May 16, with First District Supervisor Das Williams dissenting.
Testing would continue for jobs that require it under state public health officer orders or CAL/OSHA standards, according to the county.
Williams supported reducing the frequency of testing, but said the county’s workforce vaccination and testing policy could help reduce the number of people who get sick from future waves of COVID-19 infections.
“We’re supposed to be there for the public, we’re supposed to be there for them in a way where we can respond to emergencies, and to their needs, without getting them sick, so I just think removing this would be premature and not respectful of that mission that we all as county employees have,” Williams said.
The county’s Human Resource Department manages the COVID-19 testing program for 697 unvaccinated employees as of May.
That includes 104 non-jail site Sheriff’s Department employees and 141 custody/jail site Sheriff’s Department employees.
Regular COVID-19 testing will continue for jail staff, sheriff’s spokeswoman Raquel Zick said Wednesday.
“For right now, currently all staff, sworn and nonsworn, are continuing to test daily regardless of vaccination status,” she said.
Mask mandates are also still in effect, she said.
“We need to make sure as a congregate-living facility we’re ticking all the boxes for COVID-19,” she said.
Hundreds of people in county jail custody have been infected in COVID-19 outbreaks since the beginning of the pandemic, and at least one outbreak was caused by infected custody staff.
In January, the county transferred 244 people from the Main Jail to the new Northern Branch Jail near Santa Maria to help control a large COVID-19 outbreak.
“All told, our people paid a heavy price for COVID-19,” with 338 employees infected, and 21 of them infected multiple times, Sheriff Bill Brown told the Board of Supervisors at the April 12 budget meeting.
The county has spent millions of dollars on overtime hours due to COVID-19, including employee absences due to sickness and quarantine.
Brown said the Sheriff’s Department specifically has lost about 87,000 hours due to COVID-19 in the past two years, including people being sick, quarantined, or otherwise unable to work due to COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the day after the supervisors voted to end the testing program for unvaccinated employees, Planning and Development Director Lisa Plowman told the County Planning Commission about the updated policy during its meeting.
“It had been a fairly successful program, because we were catching cases of COVID, so it did work to help protect other members of the staff and potentially members of the public, but it has been suspended at this point,” Plowman said.
The planning commissioners have been meeting virtually over Zoom since the beginning of the pandemic, while the Board of Supervisors and other groups have decided to meet in person.
A commissioner asked if unvaccinated employees have to wear masks in lieu of testing, and Plowman said no.
Santa Barbara County is following state mask rules, which do not require face coverings in most places. Everyone is still required to wear masks in some specific institutions, including healthcare facilities, detention centers, and congregate-living facilities.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.