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Northam: All Virginia school divisions must follow CDC guidance on masks; many state workers must be vaccinated

Gov. Ralph Northam said a law passed in March 2021 requires schools follow COVID-19 mask guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

RICHMOND, Va. — Most of Virginia’s state workers will have to be vaccinated or agree to regular COVID-19 testing under a new requirement announced by Gov. Ralph Northam. 

The governor's office said in a news release Thursday that the order will take effect on September 1 and will apply to more than 120,000 executive branch employees. 

"Speaking as the head of that workforce, I want everyone to be as safe and protected as possible," Northam said in a briefing on Thursday afternoon.

If state employees don't provide proof of vaccination, they'll have to get a COVID-19 test done every week, and show proof of a negative result in order to come to work.

He said he was making the call "to keep state employees safe, and to keep the people that we serve safe." The governor encouraged local governments and private companies to require the same standards.

It comes amid a national surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta variant. Most cases involve the unvaccinated.

In the briefing, Northam showed how coronavirus trends were going in the wrong direction for most metrics. Cases and hospitalizations were both notably high.

"The only way we can beat this virus is vaccination, and it breaks my heart as your governor and as a doctor, to see people getting sick, getting hospitalized and unfortunately dying, from a disease that is now preventable for most people," he said. 

About 19 minutes into the briefing, Northam also took a question from a reporter who wanted to know why he wouldn't mandate mask-wearing in public schools.

Northam said by his understanding, school divisions would have to follow the CDC's guidance on masks because of a recent Virginia law.

"It is a law, as I just said, which was passed by our legislature in March 2021 that said two things: it said, number one, that children will be in class learning five days a week, and it said that the schools would follow the CDC guidelines. I don't know that it could be any simpler than that," he said. "It's the law of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and I expect our school districts to follow the law."

Northam said if school divisions had questions about what that meant, they should "talk to their delegates and senators, who not only proposed this, but passed it."

RELATED: Here's which schools are requiring masks in Hampton Roads and northeastern North Carolina (and which aren't).

The law Northam was referring to passed in a special session in March, 88-9 in the House, and 36-3 in the Senate. 

According to Virginia's Legislative Information System, "the bill requires each school board to provide such in-person instruction in a manner in which it adheres, to the maximum extent practicable, to any currently applicable mitigation strategies for early childhood care and education programs and elementary and secondary schools to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 that have been provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

Currently, CDC guidelines state that masks should be worn indoors in areas with high transmissibility. All seven cities in Hampton Roads fall under that category.

President Joe Biden and a growing number of state and local governments and major employers are taking an increasingly hard line against vaccine holdouts.

In Thursday's briefing, Northam spoke directly to people who were still hesitant to get their COVID-19 vaccine.

"I hope you will listen to me and hear me now. The time for waiting is over. Millions of people around the world have been vaccinated, and we are fine," he said. "Please, protect yourselves and the people around you."

The governor shared recent data that showed about 13,000 people per day (on average) were getting COVID-19 vaccines.

"Know that you're not alone," he said. "A lot of people like you are making the right choice every day to get the vaccine."

Northam said it was especially important to get a vaccine if you have young children, who aren't eligible to get a vaccine themselves.

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