A COVID-19 vaccination mandate will be instituted for hundreds of employees in Marin County's public schools as the delta variant continues to spread.
Teachers, staff and other educators at Marin County public schools will be required to provide proof of vaccination before classes begin on Aug. 16, or otherwise be subject to regular COVID-19 tests, Marin County Office of Education Superintendent Mary Jane Burke told KTVU on Wednesday.
Most private schools in the county have said all of their employees are already inoculated.
The county's department of public health backed the new rule. Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County Deputy Public Health Officer, suggested Tuesday before the policy was implemented that the only way to circle the wagons around COVID-19 and the delta variant is to ensure all educators have received the vaccine.
"I think it's just for people to see that we work together as a community," Dr. Santora said. "And I know individuals are upset about mandates around masks and seeing this shift with the delta variant. We're all very fatigued with the delta variant, but we need to work together as a community to get schools open, to keep our kids in schools and having a cocooning effect – especially around those students who are ineligible for vaccines – is one of those ways we work together."
Marin County has some of the highest vaccination rates in the Bay Area, with nearly 87% of the county’s eligible population fully vaccinated as of Tuesday. Still, vaccination rates are lagging in some parts of the county – such as Marin City – and a lower percentage of children aged 12 or older are fully vaccinated (76%) than the rest of the county.
Plus, children under the age of 12 still aren't eligible to receive any of the COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Santora said county health officials "fully support" following California’s recommendations to require vaccine verification and testing for unvaccinated staff, pointing to the San Jose Unified School District as one in the region that already has implemented such a policy.
"This is one of the core components of the fabric of our community," Dr. Santora said. "It's schools, and after last year, we need to ensure that kids have full-time, in-person instruction and make gains from the losses that they had last year."
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