LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Los Angeles County Sheriff says he is not going to implement the county’s vaccine mandate on his company.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva, who heads the county’s largest sheriff’s division with round 18,000 staff, mentioned in a Fb Reside occasion Thursday that he had no plans to hold out the county’s mandate, based on which the Los Angeles county’s employees till October needed to be totally vaccinated 1.
The mandate was granted by govt order in August and solely permits non secular and medical exceptions. Villanueva mentioned its staff are extra keen to be fired than to get vaccinated.
“I do not need to have the ability to lose 5, 10% of my workforce in a single day to a vaccination mandate,” mentioned the sheriff.
Greater than 26,000 folks have died from the coronavirus in Los Angeles County, probably the most populous county within the nation.
Of the county’s roughly 10 million residents, 78% have acquired no less than one dose of COVID-19 vaccine and 69% are totally vaccinated, based on public well being officers.
Well being officers mentioned the county has reported a median of 14 deaths a day, though deaths and hospital admissions have fallen by about 50% since late August.
Villanueva’s announcement got here a day after town of Los Angeles permitted one of many hardest vaccine mandates within the nation – a sweeping measure that requires the pictures for anybody coming into bars, eating places, nail salons, gyms, or perhaps a Lakers recreation.
