WILLIAMSBURG — The City of Williamsburg, along with five other cities in Hampton Roads, will require its government employees who have not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to be tested on a weekly basis.
A joint statement was issued on Thursday, Aug. 12 and included Williamsburg’s City Manager Andrew O. Trivette as well as the city managers from Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth and Suffolk.
The city managers emphasized that the measure will improve the cities’ ability to keep employees and their families health, maintain their ability to serve their residents and reduce the community spread of COVID-19.
“Announcing this measure now allows those employees who opt to become fully vaccinated to do so before the testing is implemented,” the letter stated. “By working together as a region, we can make more progress in slowing the spread of this disease than any one of us can as an individual locality.”
The statement went on to say that more than 98 percent of the cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in Virginia’s Eastern Region have occurred in people who are not fully vaccinated.
Nicole Trifone, spokesperson for the City of Williamsburg, stated that COVID-19 testing will be free for city employees and test will be conducted by City of Williamsburg paramedics.
For more information on the vaccine, including where to get one, go to the Virginia Department of Health website.
