OAKLAND — With COVID-19 surging again as the omicron variant rapidly spreads across the nation and world, the Oakland City Council has declared that diners and people entering other public gathering places must show proof that they’re vaccinated.
In approving the emergency ordinance Tuesday, Oakland followed the lead of Berkeley and of San Francisco and Contra Costa counties, which recently issued similar orders.
In addition to restaurants or other places where food or drink are served, such as bars, Oakland’s ordinance requires anyone going to indoor gyms, recreation centers, fitness centers, concert venues, museums, assisted living homes and senior centers to show their vaccine card and ID to prove they’re fully dosed.
The requirement to be vaccinated also applies to kids 12 and older, but they will not be required to show identification as adults do.
To enter Oakland City Hall, people won’t have to show vaccination proof as long as they can provide a recent negative COVID-19 test. But neither a card nor test is required for those attending a council session or other meeting subject to the Brown Act, a state law that governs access to public meetings
People will have to start showing their proof of vaccination at the designated indoor locations on Feb. 1. Before then, by Jan. 15, places covered by the ordinance will have to display signs to warn patrons of the upcoming requirement.
“The purpose is to encourage more people to get vaccinated, increase our vaccination rate in Oakland and reduce the spread (of COVID-19) from unvaccinated people in indoor locations,” said Councilmember Dan Kalb, who authored the ordinance.
Because Alameda County has not issued a vaccine mandate, Kalb said he felt Oakland should, for the safety of its residents and visitors.
When asked by this news organization last week why the county thus far has refrained from issuing a mandate, County Health Officer Dr. Nicholas Moss said that would require an enforcement effort it’s not ready to gear up.
“We support getting as many county residents vaccinated as possible,” Moss said. “The biggest challenge for us is that Alameda County is a very big county with a lot of cities. It would be a heavy lift to support all the small businesses to implement this.”
In Oakland, the city’s code enforcement team will be in charge of responding to complaints about businesses that don’t check customers’ proof of vaccine. The team will be authorized to issue fines for businesses that repeatedly flout that requirement.
Dozens of people called into the council meeting to oppose the the mandate; many of them said they oppose vaccine requirements overall.
Some council members and city staffers didn’t like the idea of applying a vaccine mandate for people entering public service places such as libraries or dental offices, both of which were included in the draft ordinance introduced Tuesday.
“Knowing we have a quarter of Oakland’s population not vaccinated — many Black and Latino residents — I have a concern we’d be limiting access to public facilities,” City Administrator Ed Reiskin said. “It would seem inconsistent to the public service ethic of letting everyone in.”
Council members agreed that barriers shouldn’t prevent people from accessing health care at dental offices.
Kalb pointed out that the draft ordinance allowed unvaccinated people to show negative COVID-19 tests in lieu of vaccine proof to enter dentist offices, and that dental emergencies — as defined by a dentist — would be exempt. But the council decided to exclude dental offices from the list altogether, as well as public libraries.
The ordinance also allows unvaccinated people to dine indoors, visit gyms or attend large indoor events as long as they have a doctor-verified medical exemption and a recent negative COVID-19 test. And they can dine outside at restaurants, with brief trips inside to pick up food, pay or use the bathroom.
Darlene Flynn, executive director of the city’s Race and Equity Department, suggested more people could get vaccinated and thus not be impacted by the mandate if the city put out more information about where to get dosed and provide drop-in vaccine clinics.
Registering for vaccine appointments online has been a deterrent for some, she said.
To that end, the council amended the ordinance to have the city administrator explore adding three more vaccine clinics in the city.
“Overall, this is a victory for public health,” Kalb said after the vote.
Source: www.mercurynews.com