New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) is expected to announce on Monday that all city employees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
City officials told The New York Times that de Blasio plans to announce the requirement that will affect the city’s roughly 340,000 workers. De Blasio announced last week that all public New York City health employees must either get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
According to the Times, the deadline for vaccinations would be Sept. 13, around when about a million students are expected to return to school. The move reflects the importance of reopening schools for de Blasio, who is serving his final year as mayor.
The New York Police Department (NYPD) disclosed last week that it had only vaccinated about 43 percent of its police force, lagging far behind the city’s roughly 70 percent vaccination rate.
“Since vaccines became available we have encouraged our employees, especially those who have contact with the public, to get vaccinated,” the NYPD said in a statement at the time.
When asked about this low vaccination rate in the police force last week, de Blasio said the NYPD and “every other agency [has] gotta do better. We gotta go farther.”