San Diego Unified will now not require new staff to be vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19.
The district’s board unanimously accredited a advice to finish the requirement that new hires present proof of vaccination at its Tuesday night assembly.
The merchandise handed with out dialogue from the board, though one public speaker opposed it.
Jason Davis, a district graduate, stated the illness “remains a significant threat to the young, senior, disabled and otherwise immunocompromised populations of our community, and resultingly remains a threat to our community at-large.”
He confused the significance of vaccination by pointing to the latest resurgence of measles, which claimed its first life within the U.S. in a decade when an unvaccinated baby died in Texas this week.
Susan Barndollar, the district’s govt director of nursing, wellness and psychological well being, informed The San Diego Union-Tribune the adjustments had been deliberate to finish when contact-tracing necessities additionally ended from the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, the California Division of Public Well being and Cal OSHA.
No different vaccinations are required for grownup staff.
Again in September 2021, the district had mandated all workers and college students be absolutely vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 by Dec. 20 of that 12 months. The mandate for college students was struck down in courtroom.
The background connected to the merchandise on the agenda cited the ending of regulatory necessities by Cal OSHA and the World Well being Group’s 2023 declaration that COVID-19 was now not a public well being emergency.
Most state office laws pertaining to COVID ended earlier this month, though record-keeping and reporting necessities will stay in impact till Feb. 3, 2026.
Employers are supposed to maintain information and monitor all identified COVID-19 instances with the worker’s title, contact data, occupation, work location, final day within the office and date of constructive check or prognosis. They need to preserve the information “for two years beyond the period in which the record is necessary.”
Barndollar stated the district doesn’t provide on-site testing however retains information of constructive check outcomes reported by staff. Within the occasion of an outbreak, the county would notify district leaders, “and then we would treat it like any other communicable disease,” she stated.
“The hospitalization rate and infection rate of COVID is way down,” she stated. “Flu is way up right now.”
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