92% of Multnomah County Employees Are Vaccinated

Another 7% have received a medical or religious exemption, leaving just over 1% of employees at risk of termination.

vaxxed A Multnomah County health worker is vaccinated. (Motoya Nakamura / Multnomah County)
By Sophie Peel

Only 1% of Multnomah County employees are at risk of termination because of failing to either get the COVID-19 vaccine or seek a religious or medical exemption.

That’s according to county officials, who on Wednesday reported that 92% of the county’s 5,601 employees are vaccinated and another 7% have applied for an exemption.

The remaining 73 employees, the county said, are majority temporary or on-call workers.

That less than 1% of workers have until Oct. 18—or next Monday—to provide proof of vaccination or to apply for an exemption. Workers who had not done either of those things were sent notices of termination on Oct. 1.

County Chair Deborah Kafoury announced the mandate in mid-August, giving employees two months to prepare. At the time, Kafoury lamented that the county could not place a vaccine mandate on county law enforcement, but the county announced today that 79% of sheriff’s office employees are vaccinated, which is just below the overall county rate of vaccination, which has somewhat stagnated at 80%.

As of Sept. 23, 77% of Portland’s employees were vaccinated or exempted. Only 10 of the the 6,444 city employees signaled they would be seeking neither of those options—essentially accepting impending termination.

The city did not provide updated numbers by end of day Wednesday.


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