Virginia Department of Health won’t mandate COVID-19 vaccines in schools

Kate Masters/Virginia Mercury

December 7, 2021, 12:53 PM

This article was written by WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com and republished with permission. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.

A petition to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for school employees and all eligible students failed this week when the Virginia Department of Health opted to take no action on the request.

In a decision posted Monday, the agency stated that it lacked the “clear statutory authority” to mandate the shots for employees. Under state law, the department does have the ability to add new vaccine requirements for students, but pointed out that federal health agencies have yet to add the COVID-19 vaccine to its childhood immunization schedule.

{snip}