SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – California will become the first U.S. state to mandate statewide COVID-19 vaccinations for schoolchildren, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Friday as a Reuters tally showed the United States topping 700,000 coronavirus deaths.
“The state already requires that students are vaccinated against viruses that cause measles, mumps, and rubella – there’s no reason why we wouldn’t do the same for COVID-19,” the Democratic governor said at a news conference.
Newsom said the schools mandate could be enacted as early as January, once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration fully approves inoculations for their age groups. California is the most populous U.S. state.
The United States has reported an average of more than 2,000 deaths per day over the past week, representing about 60% of the peak in fatalities in January, a Reuters analysis of public health data showed.
The United States leads the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths, accounting for 19% and 14% of all reported infections and fatalities, according to the Reuters tally. Globally, the pandemic is set to surpass 5 million deaths.
While national hospitalization numbers have fallen in recent weeks, some states, especially in the south of the country, are bucking that trend to record big rises here, putting pressure on healthcare systems.
Public health officials say the state’s strict COVID-19 public health orders helped to slow the transmission of the virus in recent weeks.
On Friday, the transmission map tracker of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed California with the lowest weekly case rate in the country.
Amid a national surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant leading to serious illness and death mostly among unvaccinated people, several large school districts in California already have mandated COVID-19 vaccines for some students.
The Los Angeles Unified School District, the country’s second-largest, requires them for children over the age of 12, for whom the FDA has authorized their emergency use.
Public schools in San Diego will require vaccines for students over the age of 16 in December, and in Hoboken, New Jersey, students must be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing for the virus.
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