Columbia Valley Community Health Supportive of Gov Inslee’s Order for COVID-19 Vaccinations

One major North Central Washington health care provider has a strong stance on Governor Inslee's latest executive order.

Columbia Valley Community Health Chief Operating Officer Manuel Navarro says they'll follow the order for all health care workers to get COVID-19 vaccinations.

"We're fully supportive of the executive order," said Navarro. "In fact, we had been in careful and thoughtful discussion amongst ourselves as well as with other health care partners in the community about moving in this direction anyway."

Governor Inslee's order requires all state employees and private health care workers to be fully vaccinated by mid-October. The order has been derided by Republicans in the state legislature.

Meanwhile, Chelan County Commissioners have stated they will not follow Inslee's lead and require any employees to be vaccinated. Commissioner Kevin Overbay said vaccinations should be a personal choice, and predicted Inslee's order would lead to employment shortages, particularly in the healthcare sector.

For his part, Navarro said the move to mandatory vaccinations is an easy transition as most of his work force and all of his medical staff have already received their shots.

He said the move to require vaccinations was not taken lightly, but was the right thing to do for his organization. "Ultimately, our mission is to improve the health and wellness of the people we serve," Navarro said. "We just felt that by not vaccinating or promoting vaccinations, we were going to compromise that mission."