NORFOLK, Va. — Several cities in Hampton Roads will soon require their employees to be tested for COVID-19 weekly unless they are fully vaccinated.
The city managers of Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk, and Williamsburg said in a joint press release they aim to implement the policy by Oct. 1. They said it will allow employees who opt to become fully vaccinated to do so before testing starts.
The city managers cited the rising case count in the region and nationally.
"We are at a critical point in the fight against the coronavirus," the six city managers wrote. "The Delta variant is causing the number of COVID cases in the Hampton Roads region and across the nation to spike. As a community, we have the obligation to take additional steps to curtail the spread and, most importantly, save lives."
More details are forthcoming. The testing rollout will vary, depending on the city.
Notably missing from Thursday's joint statement on weekly testing are two of the area's largest cities: Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.
A spokesperson for Virginia Beach told 13News Now the following:
"In a message this morning, the city manager let employees know that we are not yet at the point that he believes we need to impose mandates like what the six other cities have indicated they will be doing. As we have done for the last 18 months, we will continue to follow the direction of the Virginia Department of Health and the Governor’s Executive Orders while we encourage staff to get vaccinated and take prudent steps to safeguard their health and safety."
A Chesapeake spokesperson said the following:
“The City of Chesapeake and its Unified Command continues to actively monitor the trends in the City and is committed to taking all necessary steps to ensure the health and safety of our employees and community.”
Health leaders continue emphasizing vaccination as the primary solution in this pandemic.
“What I don’t want to see is people just completely rely on testing alone and not consider the vaccine, because the vaccine is really what’s going to be the long pole in the tent," Chesapeake Public Health Emergency Manager Jerry Tucker told 13News Now in an interview about testing on August 6, 2021.