BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com

Los Alamos County does not currently have a plan to require vaccinations for County staff, County Manager Steven Lynne said Thursday.

“However, given Los Alamos National Laboratory’s announcement regarding requiring vaccinations of on-site contractors, we have begun internal discussions about how that may impact some segments of our operations and I do expect that some vaccination requirements may be needed,” he said,

Lynne said Los Alamos Fire Chief Troy Chief and Human Resources Manager Ty Ryburn have begun discussions with the Fire union leadership through the collective bargaining agreement approved mechanism of the Labor Management Committee to discuss implementation issues associated with potentially requiring fire staff to be vaccinated. 

“Our Human Resources Manager has begun drafting a proposed County Manager Policy for me to consider that could be used for an initial implementation of any vaccine requirements,” he said.

Beginning Monday, Lynne said the protocol for unvaccinated staff will be that they have to provide proof of COVID-19 testing weekly.

“However, those employees that are willing and able to share proof of COVID-19 vaccination may exempt themselves from the weekly testing requirement by submitting their proof of COVID-19 vaccination information to Human Resources,” Lynne said.

Los Alamos Public Schools Interim Supt. Jennifer Guy said Friday that all LAPS employees must participate in weekly surveillance testing unless they have chosen to provide a copy of their vaccination card showing they are fully vaccinated.

” Currently, we have 95% of our employees that have presented their vaccination record and are fully vaccinated. Staff who are not will have COVID testing on Tuesday or Thursday each week with the Curative testing set up by the County. This went into effect for LAPS on Monday, August 23,” Guy said.

The vaccination rate for County employees will not be available until next week when the County protocol is implemented.