State employees in NC face deadline to show proof of vaccination or get tested weekly
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has said repeatedly over the past months that vaccines are the way out of the coronavirus pandemic.
That also goes for the tens of thousands of state employees who work for his Cabinet agencies. Workers have until Wednesday to get vaccinated or start submitting to weekly testing for COVID-19.
Cooper announced the new policy in late July, and encouraged private employers to do the same thing he’s doing for state employees who report directly or indirectly to him.
Here’s what state workers need to know:
Which state employees are covered?
The Office of State Human Resources policy manual explains to workers that the risk of COVID-19 infection is mitigated by having fellow employees fully vaccinated or tested weekly.
Agencies with the requirement include the Administration, Commerce, Environmental Quality, Health and Human Services, Information Technology, Natural and Cultural Resources, Military and Veteran Affairs, Public Safety, Revenue and Transportation departments.
The Department of Health and Human Services goes a step further, requiring employees and and volunteers at all state-run health care facilities to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30.
The new state workers policy also requires employees who are unvaccinated to wear masks, but that’s already a policy for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people in the city where many of those employees work: Raleigh.
Any local mask ordinance must be followed, too. If there is no local mask ordinance, unvaccinated visitors to Cabinet agency buildings must wear masks.
Wake County is home to 28% of Cabinet agency workers.
In Wake County, 73% of the adult population is fully vaccinated, which is the third-highest vaccination rate in the state, The N&O previously reported.
There were 54,516 employees in permanent positions across all Cabinet agencies combined, the human resources office said. That’s as of July 29, when Cooper’s Executive Order 224 was signed. There were also 4,376 temporary workers at Cabinet agencies.
Deadline to show proof of vaccination
The two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines are readily available across the state and free to obtain.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave final approval to the Pfizer vaccine, which had been approved for emergency use since late 2020. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have not yet received final FDA approval.
Jill Warren Lucas, Office of State Human Resources spokesperson, said that while the new policy goes into effect Wednesday, workers have until Sept. 8 to submit their proof of vaccination records or start weekly testing. It goes through each agency’s human resources office.
“It is important to note that Governor Cooper and NCDHHS anticipated the rise in COVID-19 cases when Executive Order 224 was issued on July 29. As case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths continue to increase statewide, we are seeing a rise in the number of COVID-19 positive cases among state workers,” Lucas said.
“OSHR is working in close collaboration with agencies to protect the health and safety of state workers and the public we serve,” she said.
Cooper has also encouraged private employers to require vaccinations, and said he was starting by being the example.
SEANC reaction
Ardis Watkins, director of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, said that SEANC has received few complaints from state employees about the new policy.
“No one has said they outright won’t do it,” Watkins said, though some employees expressed displeasure about a mandate.
Cooper’s policy of requiring vaccination proof or testing hasn’t gotten much pushback from Republican lawmakers, either.
“I think that’s reasonable,” Senate leader Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, told The News & Observer on Wednesday.
He said he would not mandate vaccinations, however, but that private employers could.
“I think an employer is perfectly within the employer’s rights to do that. I think a private property owner is perfectly in their rights as well,” Berger said.
Watkins said that SEANC hopes the legislature puts money toward the State Health Plan for offsetting costs for testing.
“We absolutely support the governor’s efforts to keep state workplaces safe during COVID ... measures that keep everybody safe, or at least go a step further to keep everyone as safe as possible,” she said.
For more details about the policy, state workers may visit oshr.nc.gov/vaccination-or-testing-policy.
For information in getting a vaccine, visit covid19.ncdhhs.gov/vaccines.