Loudoun County Public Schools will require employees to receive a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 1 or submit to weekly testing, the district announced Friday.

       “Maintaining student health to maximize our ability to provide five days a week of in-person learning is a primary focus,” the district said in its announcement. It called vaccination “an important mitigation measure” that can be taken as part of an effort to maintain in-person instruction.

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       Ninety percent of the system’s employees are already vaccinated, a system spokesman said earlier this month. Loudoun, in Northern Virginia, began a new school year for its 81,000 students on Thursday.

       Other major school systems in the Washington region have announced vaccine or testing requirements in recent weeks, including D.C., Arlington and Alexandria, as well as Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. But in D.C., some council members want the city to require a vaccine, with no testing option, for public school employees and child-care workers.

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       After Oct. 1, the Loudoun school district said in the announcement, employees who have not demonstrated full or partial vaccination status will have to begin weekly testing for the coronavirus.

       More details are to expected to be provided next week.

       “Ensuring our staff has taken every precaution to help reduce the spread of covid-19 is an important step to help keep students in the classrooms as much as possible,” Loudoun superintendent Scott A. Ziegler said Friday.