SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the nation’s first coronavirus vaccination mandate for schoolchildren, a plan to have all elementary through high school students get the shots once the vaccine gains final approval from the U.S. government for different age groups. The government has fully approved the COVID-19 vaccine for those 16 and over but only granted emergency authorization for anyone 12 to 15. Newsom’s office said that once federal regulators fully approve the vaccine for that group, the state will require students in seventh through 12th grades to get vaccinated in public and private schools. The state will only need the COVID-19 vaccine for kindergarten through sixth-grade students after the federal government approves anyone 5 to 11.
The announcement comes as infections in most of California have dropped markedly in the last month. But Newsom has been emboldened after easily defeating a recall effort the previous month following a campaign where he emphasized his commitment to vaccine mandates to end the pandemic. In Los Angeles County — the nation’s largest, with more than 10 million residents — just 1.7% of people tested for the virus have it, and daily infections are down by half in the last month when most kids went back to school. “These numbers are deficient given that 3,000-plus schools are now open countywide,” county Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday.
She noted that though the number of school outbreaks has increased slightly in recent weeks, the overall number is negligible and related mainly to youth sports. The state’s vaccine mandate would take effect the semester after the federal government grants final approval. If it comes in January, the commission will take effect in July. Students would begivend religious and medical exemptions, but the state’s rules for applying those exemptions have not been written yet. Any student who refuses to take the vaccine would be forced to complete an independent study course at home.
Until now, Newsom had left the decision on student vaccine mandates to local school districts, leading to various orders across some of the state’s largest districts. Los Angeles and Oakland Unified have mandated all students over 12 to be vaccinated, but Oakland’s order has not set a deadline for when students must comply. LA set a deadline of Jan. 20. Earlier this week; the San Diego Unified school board approved a mandate that staff and students age 16 and older be fully vaccinated by Dec. 20. Newsom has made it a point of pride to be the first in the nation to issue various pandemic-related school mandates. In August, California became the first state in the U.S. to require all K-12 public and private school teachers and staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing. Newsom also issued a school mask mandate earlier in the summer for indoor classes that applies to all teachers and students.
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