Washington D.C. Public Employees to Face Vaccine or Testing Requirement

U.S.|All Washington D.C. nationalist employees volition look a vaccine oregon investigating requirement.

• Aug. 10, 2021Updated 4:34 p.m. ET

Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington connected Tuesday directed each 37,000 metropolis employees and contractors who enactment with the metropolis to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, oregon acquisition play investigating by Sept. 19.

The enactment follows President Biden’s caller announcement that national workers would look restrictions and requirements, including testing, if they did not get vaccinated. New York, Virginia, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, person made akin moves, portion Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington State said Monday that astir authorities employees and each wellness attraction workers had to beryllium afloat vaccinated oregon risk losing their jobs.

“We cognize that we person been precise steadfast and palmy successful crushing this microorganism successful the district,” Ms. Bowser said astatine a quality conference. “And present we’re going to bash the aforesaid with the Delta variant. The mode to bash it, however, is to get everybody vaccinated.”

The argumentation falls abbreviated of a mandate, but each caller hires filling occupation vacancies posted connected Aug. 14 oregon aboriginal volition request to amusement impervious of vaccination.

“We will, of course, person a process for radical who privation to use for exemptions and immoderate unvaccinated employee, adjacent those who suffice for the aesculapian oregon spiritual exemption, volition beryllium required to behaviour a play Covid-19 trial and nonaccomplishment to comply volition pb to adverse employment actions,” Ms. Bowser said.

Only 59 percent of metropolis employees person reported their vaccine status, according to the mayor’s office. Of those, 54 percent are vaccinated.

Daily caller cases crossed the metropolis person soared, according to a New York Times database, which besides shows that hospitalizations person risen 5 percent and that determination were 3 deaths implicit the aforesaid period.

Fifty-three percent of each metropolis residents are afloat vaccinated, according to national data. People younger than 12 are not eligible for the vaccine.

“What’s driving our expanding cases close present is truly that 25-to-34-year-old population,” Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt, the manager of the city’s wellness department, said astatine the quality conference. “And we don’t spot immoderate meaningful disparities successful presumption of who are those caller cases from a contention and ethnicity perspective.”

But Dr. Nesbitt added that determination was a wide spread successful vaccine sum for that property group, with Black residents having fractional the complaint of sum arsenic their achromatic and Latino counterparts.

“We are besides going to bash a amended occupation erstwhile everybody gets vaccinated and helping to forestall much of these variants from taking implicit our communities,” she said.

The metropolis gives incentives to each metropolis residents, including nationalist employees, who are 12 and older, similar a $51 acquisition paper for person their archetypal dose of the vaccine astatine 1 of its 3 walk-up vaccination sites. And residents ages 12 to 17 get AirPods for being among the archetypal 400 youths to get inoculated astatine schoolhouse vaccination sites.