FD 13 approves staff vaccine mandate policy

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a year-long decline in emergency service calls for Skagit County Fire District 13 near La Conner.

Those call numbers have finally begun to rebound, outpacing 2020 levels, and now fire district personnel themselves are to be on the receiving end of health care services in the form of mandatory coronavirus vaccinations.

District Commissioners Bruce Shellhamer and John Doyle last Friday approved a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the district’s health care providers.

The policy follows Gov. Jay Inslee’s Aug. 9 proclamation, which mandates that all health care providers wh...