WA State Employee Vaccination Rates Improve With Latest Report

OLYMPIA, WA — One week after the deadline passed, roughly 94 percent of Washington's more than 60,000 state employees are now listed in compliance with Gov. Jay Inslee's COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

The Office of Financial Management released its updated figures Monday, showing fewer separations than initially reported and more employees having confirmed their vaccination status.

The new report shows overall compliance up 2 percent since the preliminary numbers were released Oct. 19, with about 300 more employees verifying their vaccination status, and a few dozen more receiving accommodations for their exemption requests.

When the headcount is adjusted to remove those who were approved for exemptions and accommodations, compliance is closer to 97 percent, state officials said.

Here is a look at the latest statewide figures:

• Nearly 91% of state employees (56,866 workers) have verified full vaccination status, up from 89.4%.
• 3.2% percent of employees (1,999 workers) have received an accommodation for religious or medical exemptions, up from 3%.
• 2.9% of employees (1,785 workers) left their jobs or were terminated, down from the initial report of 3% (1,887 people).
• 3.1% of employees (1,941 workers) have actions pending, which includes either getting vaccinated, retirements, accommodations, or separations. That's down from 4.6% (2,887 workers).

A few hundred accommodation requests were still listed as pending when the deadline arrived. OFM officials are working with the state's human resources division to track the developments and plan to share updated figures by Nov. 8.