COVID Vaccine Required For Fairfax School, Government Employees

FAIRFAX COUNTY, VA — Fairfax County Public Schools will require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo regular testing by late October. Fairfax County government will also require its employees to get the vaccine or be tested weekly starting in the fall.

For county government employees, those who request a medical or religious exemption from the vaccine requirement will need to get COVID-19 testing weekly.

The action follows a board matter from Chairman Jeff McKay in late July directing County Executive Bryan Hill to explore a vaccine requirement for county employees.

"We join organizations including Fairfax County Public Schools, public universities, privately held companies, and our federal and local governments, taking these measures to help protect employees and the public from this significant health threat," said Hill in a statement. "Since the beginning of the pandemic, Fairfax County has focused on policies and procedures that support the health and well-being of our staff and the community, and we will continue to do so."

The school system said the vaccine requirement is intended to make students and staff feel safe and "lead by example" to promote vaccinations. Those who don't get vaccinated will need to undergo routine testing and show negative results. Employees should continue to monitor employee news from FCPS for details.

The announcement came as FCPS is set to begin the new school year on Monday with five days of in-person learning per week. The school system will implement other mitigation strategies such as an indoor mask requirement, daily health screening questionnaires, ventilation, cleaning and disinfecting and contact tracing with the Fairfax County Health Department when needed.

The Fairfax County Health Department and other health departments recommend the vaccine as an effective way to prevent severe disease, hospitalization and death from COVID-19. A majority of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Northern Virginia and across the state this year have been among people who are unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated, according to the Virginia Department of Health.

FCPS recommends those who want to be vaccinated find vaccines through the Fairfax County Health Department or Vaccines.gov.