West Kelowna joins growing list of Interior cities requiring staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19

Staff working for the City of West Kelowna have to show proof of vaccination by Jan. 4.

“Throughout the pandemic, we have worked closely with our employees to provide a safe work environment in line with public health orders and, aside from those orders, we need to do as much as we can beyond that,” CAO Paul Gipps said in a news release. “Not only will this policy help protect our employees, it will help protect our citizens who we serve across all city facilities."

The Jan. 4 deadline will allow employees time to get fully vaccinated, the news release says.

Kelowna and Kamloops have already announced similar requirements for their staff. The City of Penticton is making both staff and elected officials get vaccinated.

READ MORE: Penticton latest to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for staff, politicians


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Rob Munro

Rob Munro

Rob Munro has a long history in journalism after starting an underground newspaper in Whitehorse called the Yukon Howl in 1980. He spent five years at the 100 Mile Free Press, starting in the darkroom, moving on to sports and news reporting before becoming the advertising manager. He came to Kelowna in 1989 as a reporter for the Kelowna Daily Courier, and spent the 1990s mostly covering city hall. For most of the past 20 years he worked full time for the union representing newspaper workers throughout B.C. He’s returned to his true love of being a reporter with a special focus on civic politics