Carson City, NV (AP) - Hundreds of unvaccinated employees who work at public colleges and universities in Nevada were fired Friday for failing to comply with COVID-19 mandates as the spread of the virus statewide accelerates at its fastest rate in more than a year.
In the Las Vegas area, officials said Friday 3,363 new cases had been reported a day earlier. The spike broke the Southern Nevada Health District’s previous record for the most cases reported in a single day.
“We are in the midst of seeing a significant increase, which we have not seen since early November 2020 at the beginning of the winter surge that tested our hospital capacity,” DuAne Young, Gov. Steve Sisolak’s policy director, told reporters on Thursday.
Young said hospitalizations are on the rise in both northern and southern Nevada. And he expects the surge to continue in the coming weeks.
The Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents deadlocked 6-6 Thursday on a measure to repeal the staff vaccine mandate at universities and then rejected a measure to push the effective termination date back two weeks.
Without majority support for a repeal, the mandate — which Sisolak and the Nevada Faculty Alliance support — remained in effect. Employees who did not provide proof of vaccination by Friday faced termination.
Higher education officials said Friday that 379 employees were being terminated, 188 attribution employees ended their contracts and 18 more voluntarily resigned. Employees who are fired can seek reinstatement if they show proof of vaccination in January, regents said.
“The pandemic has underscored the importance of delivering a safe and effective in-person educational experience for our students and the vaccine will help our institutions achieve that goal,” Regent Amy Carvalho said in a statement.
With the staff mandate remaining in effect, universities are set to begin the semester with a mandate on staff and without one on students. Last week, an emergency mandate imposed on students by the state Board of Health expired and a state legislative panel on a 6-6 vote decided against making it permanent.
Regents in support of the mandate said it was the best way to maintain health on campuses, while those opposed said it was unfair to impose a mandate on staff but not on students.