Watch: Gavin Newsom orders state, health care workers to provide proof of COVID vaccination

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is set to announce new requirements for state and health care workers as the number of COVID-19 cases continue to grow in the state.

The California Department of Public Health and the Department of Human Resources are requiring state and health care workers to provide proof of vaccination or else requiring them to continue wearing masks and to submit to regular COVID-19 testing.

Outside of the university system, there are 240,000 California state government employees in the state system. Many of them work in state prisons, where a little more than half (52%) are fully vaccinated, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Newsom’s order comes as the state continues to grapple with the Delta variant, a more contagious variant of the COVID-19 virus.