Indoor diners must show proof of vaccination in Jefferson, Clallam counties
Sep 3, 2021, 6:30 AM
A person presents their vaccine card at Liberty Theatre in Camas, Washington. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
(Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
The health officer for Jefferson and Clallam counties — Dr. Allison Berry — issued a new public health order Thursday, requiring proof of vaccination for all patrons entering an indoor restaurant or bar.
Masks will be required at large, outdoor events in King County
Children younger than 12, who are ineligible for vaccination, may enter without showing proof. Employees of the businesses who mask continuously while in the building also do not need to provide proof of vaccination.
The requirement takes effect Saturday, Sept. 4.
“Indoor bars and restaurants are known to pose a high risk for COVID-19 transmission, as they encourage unmasking of large groups of people indoors,” Dr. Berry said in a release. “Our goal is to make these safer places to be and to reduce transmission in our communities, allowing our hospitals to keep functioning and our schools to open more safely this fall.”
The health department says 495 COVID-19 outbreaks have been traced to restaurants and bars across the state as of last month.
“Given the ability of the delta variant to spread beyond 6 feet when people are unmasked indoors, we believe that a vaccine requirement will be more effective and less costly than the capacity limitations we saw last year,” Berry said. “We want to keep businesses open while protecting the public. This is how we do it.”
Acceptable forms of vaccination include a completed vaccination card from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a state Department of Health certificate of COVID-19 vaccination, a printed copy of a state Department of Health vaccine record, a photograph of any of those documents, or an app-based vaccine passport.
A person is considered to be fully vaccinated when they have received all the required doses of a vaccine for COVID-19 and 14 days have passed since the final dose. Moderna and Pfizer are two-dose vaccines, while Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine requires just one dose.
Find a location to get vaccinated here.
Under a statewide directive from Gov. Inslee, masks are required in all indoor public settings, regardless of vaccination status. That includes retail locations, grocery stores, bars, restaurants, indoor music venues, and nightclubs, as well as any other business that is “generally accessible” to the public.
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