79°
70º | 78°
On Sept. 8, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced that all unvaccinated city employees must undergo mandatory COVID-19 testing.
According to Houston Public Media, Turner's executive order will require certain unvaccinated city employees to submit to bimonthly COVID-19 tests and report the results back to the city. The order applies to employees of the city's police, fire and other departments. Turner also implemented a mask mandate for city employees in August.
"What that means when you have 129 police officers with COVID, they're not able to perform their jobs. Same thing with municipal workers – for example, permitting — that slows things down, as well," Turner told Houston Public Media. "Simply don't want them to get sick and don't want anybody to die."
KHOU News reported that Turner said that there would be repercussions for those that fail to comply with the new executive order.
"A failure to adhere to the policy will result in disciplinary action and could even cost you your job," Turner said, according to KHOU News.
Turner said that, according to data from the city, 342 city employees, including workers in fire and police departments, have currently tested positive for the COVID-19 virus.
"We've been above 300 for quite some time, and to simply continue to move forward and just report the numbers is not enough," Turner said.
City workers that are fully vaccinated or those with religious or medical exemptions are exempt from the executive order. The order also does not apply to elected or appointed officials.
The executive order goes into effect next month, after which unvaccinated employees will be required to show proof of testing on the 1st and 15th of each month. The first date of required test reporting will be Oct. 15.
The Houston Fire Department recently confirmed a fourth COVID-related death when an engineer operator died from COVID-19 on Friday, Sept. 3.