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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A City Council committee recommended eliminating the COVID-19 testing requirement for unvaccinated Los Angeles city employees Tuesday.
Currently, city employees who are not vaccinated against the virus must receive an exemption and undergo weekly testing.
Under a resolution recommended by the committee, the testing requirement would end, but the vaccination mandate would remain unchanged. City staff, however, told the committee that the city was in the process of granting exemptions for unvaccinated employees to return to work.
The proposed resolution would also reimburse city employees for time and money spent adhering to the testing requirements.
"Effective immediately, no City employee shall be charged for the costs of any required testing, or required to test on their own time," the resolution reads.
The city has spent $275,000 per month in surveillance testing costs, for a total of $6.5 million incurred, according to officials.