LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Anyone entering a Louisville Metro Government building will be required to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status, beginning on Monday, Aug. 2.
According to an announcement from Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer's office, the decision is a response to the increase of COVID-19 cases driven by the new Delta variant.
Meanwhile, the city is considering considering requiring vaccines for city employees.
Louisville Chief of Public Services Matt Golden said the plan was “under consideration” during a jail policy committee meeting this week but did not provide additional details.
Plans were recently announced in New York City that require city workers to get vaccinated or undergo frequent testing for the virus. The requirement goes into effect in September. California and the state of New York also has similar requirements for it’s workers.
“I think they are still looking at some of the legalities of that,” Golden said at the meeting.
As of Friday afternoon, the city of Louisville was listed in the "orange" alert status, with a two-week average daily incidence rate of 12.5 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, after several weeks in the "yellow." In the past three weeks alone, COVID-19 cases in the community have tripled with 672 new cases reported the week of July 24.
With this trend, city officials anticipate reaching "red" alert status by Monday.
"We're at a point we'd hoped to avoid through vaccines, which are safe, highly effective at stopping serious illness and death from COVID-19, and widely available at over 100 locations throughout Louisville," Fischer said in a statement. "This is an urgent step to halt this pandemic of the unvaccinated, and our community must once again work together so that we can move forward -- not backward -- against this dastardly virus."
The mayor is urging other Louisville employers to also recommending masking up at their businesses in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 in order to protect children 12 and younger who will be returning to classrooms in coming weeks.
In a memo sent to city employees on Monday, Human Resources Director Ernestine Booth-Henry said workers are required to submit vaccination status by August 6th.
“The names of anyone who is noncompliant will be sent to their Department Directors and Chiefs on a weekly basis,” Booth-Henry wrote, “After August 6, those who are noncompliant may face disciplinary action.”
In a statement Friday afternoon, the city said:
"We will continue to monitor the situation, as well as guidance from the federal and state governments, and make changes to the policy as we feel necessary to protect the health of all Louisvillians."
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