LAKE COUNTY, Calif. — Local hospitals are dealing with an influx of patients due to the COVID-19 delta variant, and in one case it has resulted in a new employee vaccination policy.

To help protect its patients, workforce and communities from the highly contagious COVID-19 delta variant, not-for-profit Sutter Health — the parent organization of Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport — on Wednesday announced a new policy requiring its workforce to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Sept. 30.

“Our integrated network has a shared commitment to protecting the health and safety of our patients and the communities we serve,” said Sarah Krevans, president and CEO of Sutter Health. “I am grateful the majority of our workforce and allied physicians have already demonstrated their leadership and their confidence in the COVID-19 vaccines by getting fully vaccinated.”

Sutter joins a growing number of leading organizations across the country who are requiring employees to get vaccinated to help protect against the virus.

The new policy at Sutter comes as the highly infectious delta variant is rapidly increasing the number of COVID-19 cases.

“Our rigorous COVID-19 infection prevention protocols have so far helped protect the health and safety of our patients and our workforce,” said William Isenberg, M.D., Ph.D., Sutter Health’s chief quality and safety officer. “However, these measures alone are not enough against the increasing threat of highly infectious variants like delta.”

Isenberg said the only way to get ahead of this virus once and for all is for everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated as soon as possible. “The unfortunate reality is that the delta variant is driving a surge in hospitalizations throughout our network and around the country, mostly among unvaccinated people.”

Lake County Public Health officials have reported in recent weeks that both Adventist Health Clear Lake and Sutter Lakeside Hospital have had more COVID-19 patients than ER beds.

That’s because Lake County’s case rate per 100,000 over a seven-day average has remained the highest in the state for the past month. On Wednesday, it was 57 per 100,000, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Over the weekend, Charlie Evans, MD, Lake County’s acting Public Health officer, had reported that the critically high county case rate had been putting the two hospitals under strain for the previous two weeks.

The situation prompted Evans to ask people not to overuse the county’s limited intensive care and emergency medicine resources, but to seek testing, vaccination and care for mild symptoms through other health care facilities and clinics.

Kim Lewis,a spokesperson for Adventist Health, told Lake County News that Lake County is currently at a positivity rate of 17%, where the rest of the state is around 6%.

“We are seeing an influx of patients with COVID-19 related symptoms and are providing them with appropriate care,” said Lewis.

Lewis said that because patients’ needs change daily, the hospital isn’t able to provide an exact count. “We have a 25 bed in-patient capacity, but can expand as needed.”

Lewis added, “As we continue to treat patients with COVID-19, we would like to remind our community and neighbors of the important role we all must play. Getting vaccinated and following CDC and state guidelines supports the health and well-being of community members and the physicians and nurses on the front lines.”

Ahead of its vaccination policy announcement, Sutter Health earlier this week said it was having challenges with growing numbers of COVID-19 patients.

“As much as we’re all ready to be done with the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not yet done with us. The highly contagious delta variant is driving an increase in hospitalizations throughout our network and around the country, mostly among unvaccinated people,” the organization said in a statement.

Sutter Health urged people to get vaccinated, to be tested if necessary and informed them that they will need to wear masks at all of the organization's facilities.