California will require all of its roughly 2.2 million health care and long term care workers to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Sept. 30.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said last month he would require health care workers to either be vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.
But the new order issued Thursday by the California Department of Public Health does not give health care workers a choice. It says all must be fully vaccinated by the end of September.
Hospitals and other health facilities will also be required to verify that visitors are fully vaccinated or have tested negative for COVID-19.
California is averaging 18.3 new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people per day. The delta variant is causing most of the new infections.
The department said that since January, the most common settings for virus outbreaks were in residential care facilities.
