Vancouver School Board will not mandate COVID-19 vaccines for staff

The Vancouver School Board has decided against mandating COVID-19 vaccines for staff.

The decision was announced Thursday morning.

Carmen Cho is the chair of the Vancouver School Board and says, “As a Board, we continue to be very committed to ensuring schools are safe and inclusive places to learn and work.”

“We are pleased that approximately 90 per cent of eligible youth and adults in the Vancouver Coastal Health region are vaccinated, and we continue to strongly encourage anyone who has yet to be vaccinated to make an appointment and do their part to keep everyone healthy and safe.”

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In a release, the VSB says it considered “a full range of possible implications a vaccine mandate could have on the delivery of education and educational programs.”

School boards in Surrey, New Westminster and Abbotsford have also decided against implementing a vaccine mandate.

Earlier this week, the Abbotsford Board of Education deliberated on the implications of a potential proof of vaccine mandate for all K-12 staff and decided against the move.

“With multiple layers of protection currently in place throughout all of our buildings, we know that our schools are low-risk settings for transmission. Furthermore, our public health experts have confirmed that our schools are not a primary source of COVID-19 spread,” noted Dr. Stan Petersen, chair for the Abbotsford Board of Education.