New rules prompt study
Local governments look at federal vaccination mandates
The Boulder County Attorney’s Office and county government’s human relations staff are evaluating whether and how sweeping new federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements announced Thursday will affect the county and its employees, County Administrator Jana Petersen said Friday.
President Joe Biden is signing an executive order to require vaccination for employees of the federal government’s executive branch, and contractors who do business with the federal government,
The president also announced Thursday that all employers in the nation with more than 100 workers must require those workers to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing for the COVID-19 virus.
Petersen said in a telephone message that the mandates announced by Biden for federal employees will apply to Boulder County staff working in the federal Head Start program.
That was already going to be the case. According to the Boulder County Head Start website, tinyurl.com/28aja7ys, on Aug. 9 Boulder County Public Health issued a public health order to require facial coverings in schools PK-12 and child care settings, which includes Head Start classrooms. All children ages 2 and over participating in Boulder County’s Head Start programming were being required to wear a mask in classrooms.
Boulder County’s Petersen said
Friday the county attorney’s office and human resources staff are looking into how former federal, state and county orders and the latest announcement by the president apply to county government.
When asked how new federal mandates would apply to Longmont city government employees, City Manager Harold Dominguez replied by email: “I would say that we are working to understand the current federal directive.”
Boulder city spokesperson Sarah Huntley said in a Friday afternoon email: “The City of Boulder is working to better understand the proposed requirements, as well as how, and if, they apply to local government employers. We will make a determination about how best to respond as some of these details become available. Currently, our staff is working under a city organization policy that requires city employees to complete vaccination attestations, and under the county’s face covering mandate for work that is occurring indoors.”
Petersen said it sounds like sometime next month the federal government will provide further guidelines for government, private-sector and employees of nonprofit groups who will be affected by Thursday’s mandates.
She said, “it’s a mixed bag right now” for Boulder County government staff because of separate guidelines and regulations that have been issued by all levels of government.
Petersen said Boulder County Commissioners have been discussing whether to impose a vaccination mandate on county government workers but have not yet decided whether they will.
Boulder County Public Health spokesperson Angela Simental said in a Friday afternoon email that “we are hopeful that the president’s announcement requiring vaccines for all federal employees and direction to the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a rule applying to employers with 100 or more employees will encourage more vaccinations among the 80 million unvaccinated yet eligible Americans, including the 66,000 eligible but not yet vaccinated Boulder County residents. We are closely following these developments and look forward to OSHA developing the rule for employers of more than 100 people.”
Boulder County Public Health announced Sept. 2 that starting Sept. 3, masks are required for people age 2 and older, regardless of those people’s vaccination status, during periods of substantial or high transmission levels in all indoor public spaces, including but not limited to public transportation, private and public offices, retail stores, restaurants, bars, event centers, gyms, recreation centers and manufacturing facilities. The order does not apply to private homes; but Boulder County Public Health recommends wearing a mask whenever people are around individuals from a different household, particularly when at least one individual is not vaccinated.
Boulder County Public Health also recommended that businesses and facilities move activities outdoors whenever possible, or increase ventilation by opening windows and doors, running the HVAC or installing portable air filters. The order does not contain any outdoor mask requirements.
Exceptions for indoor public masking will be allowed for employers, owners and operators who have voluntarily implemented proof of vaccination requirements for all employees, staff, visitors and patrons entering their facility — commonly known as a “vaccination passport” — if approved by the county health office.
In a Friday afternoon news release, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis thanked Biden “for his leadership yesterday in announcing a series of new measures to get more Americans vaccinated and increase testing.
“Colorado has already implemented a variety of policies that meet the Biden administration’s goals to combat COVID-19,” the governor’s staff’s news release said.
That release also noted that all Colorado health care workers who interact with high-risk patients at nursing homes, hospitals and other health care settings are required to be vaccinated per a rule issued by the State Board of Health at the request of Polis and that “all Colorado state employees are also required to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.”