California to require healthcare workers to receive COVID-19 booster

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Tuesday that the state will require health care workers to receive the COVID-19 booster shot.

Newsom will discuss it along with other safety measures at a testing clinic in Alameda County on Wednesday.

The ruling comes as the new COVID-19 Omicron variant is the dominant variant of cases. Federal health officials said the variant accounted for 73% of new cases last week.

Scientists in Africa first sounded the alarm about omicron less than a month ago and on Nov. 26 the World Health Organization designated it as a "variant of concern." The mutant has since shown up in about 90 countries.

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California has given more than 64 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.