The state has set an Oct. 18 deadline for health care workers, teachers and other school staff to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

Administrators at Columbia Memorial Hospital and Providence Seaside Hospital believe most hospital staff will be vaccinated against the coronavirus by the state’s deadline for health care workers in mid-October.

More than 80% of caregivers at Columbia Memorial have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Astoria hospital expects more staff to get their second doses over the next week, Jarrod Karnofski, the vice president of Columbia Memorial’s ancillary and support services, said at a news conference hosted by the Clatsop County Public Health Department on Wednesday.

At Providence Seaside, about 85% of caregivers have been vaccinated, according to Jason Plamondon, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, who was not at the news conference but answered questions via email.

Gov. Kate Brown has set an Oct. 18 deadline for health care workers, teachers and other school staff to be vaccinated. The Oregon Health Authority allows for exemptions for religious and medical reasons.

Columbia Memorial anticipates that “a fair number” of unvaccinated staff will request exemptions to the vaccine mandate, Karnofski said.

“We have already been working on a process internally to evaluate those religious and medical exceptions, and approving or denying those exceptions per the Oregon Health Authority guidelines,” he said.

Columbia Memorial is hopeful, he said, that it won’t have many caregivers without a vaccine or approved exemption by the deadline.

Providence Seaside is seeing “a few” workers asking for exemptions, Plamondon said.

Columbia Memorial and Providence Seaside are among the region’s largest employers, so if even a fraction of hospital staff remains unvaccinated by the deadline, it could mean dozens of workers could lose their jobs for refusing a vaccine.

Hospitalizations linked to the virus peaked on the North Coast during the late summer as the delta variant led to a record number of new virus cases. But local hospitalizations have fallen over the past few weeks.

Columbia Memorial was treating two virus patients as of Wednesday morning. “We’ve seen a nice decline in admissions over the last week,” Karnofski said.

In addition, the hospital has reopened its same-day services unit — used for a time as a special COVID unit — and is doing elective surgeries again.

Providence Seaside had no virus patients as of Wednesday morning, Plamondon said.