OLYMPIA — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has brought back a statewide mask requirement and ordered all public, private and charter school employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine as subject to their employment.
The governor’s announcement Wednesday comes as cases of COVID-19 cases surge and Washington’s hospitals are straining under a shortfall of health care staffers.
Inslee’s orders represent some of the strictest measures in the nation to tamp down another wave of the coronavirus. They have already brought fresh rounds of protests to the Capitol campus by those opposed to the vaccine or government mandates.