Governor Inslee's COVID-19 Update

For your general information, Governor Jay Inslee held a press conference at the State Capitol on Thursday, October 28 at 2:30 p.m. to provide updates on the State employee vaccination mandate, Secretary Kim Wyman’s new appointment, eviction moratorium and the carbon footprint.  He was joined by Lacy Fehrenbach, WA State Department of Health Deputy Secretary for COVID Response, and Nick Streuli, Executive Director of External Affairs. 

State Employee Vaccination Mandate Update 

The Governor announced that almost 91% of the state employees in Washington State have verified that they have been vaccinated, 3.2% employees have received an accommodation, which is a combined 94% of state employees have complied with the mandate.  He stated that they only lost 2.9% of employees and 3.1% of employees are pending action which means they are in the process of getting vaccinated.

Workers that lost their position are able to re-apply as long as they comply to being vaccinated.

Secretary of State Kim Wyman New Appointment

The Governor congratulated Kim Wyman for her appointment to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) as their Senior Election Security Lead.  She stated that she is a great fit to lead this effort.  He further noted that the appointment process to replace Kim is still coming together and regardless of who is in the spot they will continue to do Kim’s good work.

Tenants and Landlords Update

After 19 months, which began on March 2020, the Governor stated that “we are at the end of our eviction moratorium bridge, local jurisdictions continue to work on rental assistance, eviction resolution and the right to counsel.  During the pandemic state and local authorities made over $1 billion dollars available to help landlords and tenant’s through this troubled time.  The eviction resolution program is helping landlords and tenants to reach agreements.”  He encouraged landlords and tenants to take advantage of these programs.

“We can’t have an economy, ultimately, where nobody pays rent,” he said. “You have to have some transition and we are moving to that transition.”

The eviction moratorium bridge transition will end on Sunday, October 31, 2021 at 11:59 p.m.  However, in Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan extended the moratorium through January 15, 2022.

Carbon Footprint

The Governor stated that he will be proposing to the legislature in the 2022 Legislative Session additional measures to reduce the carbon footprint.  These measures would further restrain the use of fossil fuels to include natural gas in some circumstances. 

We will keep you further updated.

To view the press conference, click here.

For a copy of this update, click here.