According to a new order that Newsom will unveil Wednesday, California will be the first state in the nation to implement such a requirement, which will go into effect in mid-October, sources told CNN.
The mandate was first reported by Politico on Tuesday evening.
School districts in San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, and Long Beach have implemented such a measure. The state’s largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, required weekly Covid tests, but did not require educators to be vaccinated.
“We are getting all of our children safely back to face-to-face classes,” Newsom said Friday in an event touting mental health resources. “We want to do this in a safe way so that these children get this full support.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, has expressed his support and has requested that teachers be vaccinated.
“I’m going to piss some people off about it, but I think we should,” he told MSNBC on Tuesday when asked if he thought teachers should be required to be vaccinated.
“We are now in a critical situation,” he added. “We have had over 615,000 deaths and are now on a big increase as we move into the fall, the school season. This is very serious business. You would wish people would see why it is so important to be vaccinated. ”
According to sources, most districts and unions in California have endorsed the health order.
CNN has reached out to the California Teachers Union, which represents educators across the state.
“Those who are not vaccinated have to get vaccinated. That way, we can keep our children personal throughout the school year without stress or anxiety, ”Newsom said on Friday.
California has more than 1,000 school districts with more than 300,000 teachers and approximately 6.1 million students.
Last month, Newsom said California would require all government employees and health care workers to demonstrate vaccination status or perform regular tests amid a spate of cases of the highly contagious Delta variant.
Employees must prove they received the vaccine by showing their vaccination card or using a verification code provided by the California Department of Health.
Unvaccinated civil servants must be tested at least once a week and must wear N95 masks at all times. Unvaccinated health care workers must be tested at least twice a week, health officials said.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and New York City have similar Covid-19 mandates for employees.
This is a development story and will be updated.
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