No vaccine mandate for Petersburg employees, unvaccinated will have to take bi-weekly test

PETERSBURG – Employees for the city of Petersburg will have the option to be vaccinated against COVID-19, or else they will have to take required tests for the virus to come to work. 

City Manager Stuart Turille Jr. was strong in his support for the vaccine and its safety. He ultimately declined to issue a hard mandate for all employees, saying “I’m not a dictator, I’m not going to mandate.” 

Organizations around the state like hospitals and schools which used vaccine mandates have faced backlash, and even had employees quit over those mandates. Turille said he felt that most of these workers choose to quit over the vaccine requirement, and not a weekly required test. 

More:Vax mandate in Petersburg: Council considers requirement for city employees

If it were economically feasible, the city manager said he would simply test all of his employees on a bi-weekly basis. The city, however, was quoted $123 per test, meaning one full testing session for every member of staff would cost about $77,000.  

Petersburg surveyed its staff of about 630 employees to see what number had gotten vaccinated. Of the 146 respondents, 25% (36 people) said they had not been vaccinated. Turille said that if that rate is applied to the entire staff, it would mean about 150 people are unvaccinated. 

The virus has had an impact on the city’s workforce itself. Forty percent of respondents to the survey said that they have had to miss work due to COVID-19 exposure while 18% of workers surveyed indicated that they had contracted the virus at some point during the pandemic. 

About two-thirds of respondents said that they spend at least half of their working hours interacting with the general public. 

“That’s a pretty significant statistic,” Turille said. “I think, if we’re having that much interaction with citizens, that carries a lot of weight in my thinking.” 

City employees said their reasons for going unvaccinated ranged from religious reasons to the infringement of their personal liberty to health fears around blood clots and the damaging of one’s DNA. 

The Centers for Disease Control says that the vaccine does not alter a patient’s DNA in any way. Use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was halted earlier this year to investigate rare blood clots that were occurring after its use. Those cases were rare, with 28 total people having clots, three of which died.  

Petersburg so far has seen the most total cases of COVID-19 during the pandemic of any Tri-Cities locality at 5,186. It has also had the most deaths at 107. Cases and deaths have dropped off last week. Petersburg 40 cases and two deaths in the week ending Sunday Oct. 17, versus 90 cases and three deaths the previous week. 

Still, at almost 750,000 deaths nationwide, COVID-19 has surpassed the 1918 Spanish Flu as the deadliest disease in American history.  

Turille said he is wary of the upcoming winter months where cases of COVID-19 have spiked during the previous two years, as well as the Delta Variant which the CDC says is both more contagious and more deadly.

Employees will be given 45 days to comply before starting required bi-weekly tests. 

The city manager expressed the desire to reduce the cost of testing. Tests could take place on a bi-weekly basis instead of a weekly basis, or employees may be given an hour of paid work time per week to get tested at local pharmacies, which offer tests for free. 

You can reach Sean Jones at sjones@progress-index.com. Follow him at @SeanJones_PI. Follow The Progress-Index on Twitter at @ProgressIndex.