Health director wants to make Halifax County require department employees to get COVID-19 vaccine

While fewer people go out with masks, the new, rapidly spreading Delta variant of coronavirus infects more people. Local health officials say 94% of people testing positive with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. No one hospitalized with symptoms of COVID-19 has been vaccinated.

The majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are between 18 and 49, officials said.

To try and combat this recent surge in coronavirus cases, Halifax County Health Director Bruce Robistow is now trying to make vaccines mandatory for everyone employed in the health department.

"We were winning the battle, but the virus knew it had to mutate in order to survive,​" Robistow said.

Last week, the county showed that there was a 2.4% of tests administered in the county came back positive. Now, that number has risen to more than 5%.

"5% has been our guide, doing well if you’re under 5%, and we just went over that," he said.

UNC-CH will require vaccinations or weekly tests for return to campus

He's putting a proposal before the county board of health in the coming weeks. If passed, the proposal would affect 66 county employees.

"The vaccine is still working well in regard to ensuring you don’t have a severe outbreak," Robistow said.

So far only two of North Carolina's 100 counties has made the move to require vaccinations among health department staff.

"You know in healthcare we’re caring for those folks that have compromised immune systems and that are sickly, and it’s my opinion that it’s mission critical for us to ensure that we’re vaccinated so we’re not responsible for spreading this virus," Robistow said.