Fresno likely to enforce vaccine, testing mandate for employees

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- The City of Fresno is likely to implement a mandate for employees to get vaccinated or get weekly COVID testing by early September.

The city council and the mayor met in an emergency meeting Thursday after some council members told Action News they thought a mandate was necessary.

The number of new cases and hospitalizations have both doubled in the last week in Fresno County.

Council members said the number of city employees getting vaccinated is too low.

"Quite frankly, in my view, it's disgusting when only a quarter of your employees that are essential to the running of the city have been vaccinated," Miguel Arias said.

Mayor Dyer said the city attorney's office had a legal opinion saying they couldn't mandate the vaccine until it got full FDA approval.

But other cities and public and private entities have mandated vaccines recently.

The council will still have to make the mandate official at a future meeting.