Solano teachers required to get COVID-19 vaccine under new state health order
(Stock image; Graphic by Solano NewsNet)
Educators in Solano County will soon be required to prove that they have received a COVID-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing for the virus as part of a new state health order announced on Wednesday.
The order covers all public and private school educators who work at a school that teaches elementary, middle or high school students. It applies equally to teachers and other staff members who work at covered schools, including volunteers who provide education support services on campus.
The requirement effectively mandates workers at K-12 schools be fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, though it won’t apply to school employees who have a legitimate medical condition that prevents them from receiving one.
All unvaccinated school workers, including those with medical excuses and employees who are partially vaccinated, will have to submit to a weekly COVID-19 screening test as part of the state’s health order.
The public health order goes into effect on Thursday, and schools have until mid-October to comply with it. Schools must also create a plan to verify the vaccination status of its employees as well as the results of any COVID-19 screening that occurs among unvaccinated workers.
"There’s no substitute for in-person instruction, and California will continue to lead the nation in keeping students and staff safe while ensuring fully open classrooms," Dr. Tomás Aragón, a public health officers with the California Department of Public Health, said in a statement. "Today’s order will help the state’s continued efforts to increase vaccinations, similar to the orders encouraging state and health care workers and businesses to get vaccinated."
The state’s health order comes after some school districts implemented similar measures of their own. In recent days, vaccine mandates for educators have been announced in Oakland, San Francisco and other cities.
“We think this is the right thing to do, and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open,” Governor Gavin Newsom said on Tuesday. “It’s the right thing to do to keep our most precious resource healthy and safe — our children — here in the state.”
The order does not affect students, child care workers, home school administrators and college and university employees. Newsom declined to say if individuals covered within those categories will be subjected to a future health order.
The measure comes as California grapples with a sharp increase in infection and admittance to hospitals that is largely attributed to a mutated form of COVID-19 known as the “Delta variant.” Health experts say that form of the virus is twice as contagious as the original version that began spreading around the world nearly two years ago.
No vaccine to date prevents the transmission of COVID-19 between individuals, but vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna and other companies help thwart the worst effects of the virus.
California has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, with around 64 percent of residents over the age of 12 considered fully vaccinated against the effects of COVID-19.
Among California educators, the vaccination rate is even higher, according to the California Teachers Association. Internal data gathered by the CTA and shared with the Wall Street Journal newspaper showed around 90 percent of the group’s 310,000 educators are already fully vaccinated.
The CTA and another organization, the California Federation of Teachers, both announced their support of the public health order, the Journal said.
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