De Blasio Announces Vaccine Mandate for All City Workers

New York City will require all city workers to be vaccinated by the end of the month or lose their paychecks, a new mandate for the nation’s largest municipal work force and one of the strictest in the country, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday.

Starting on Nov. 1, nearly all city workers — including police officers, firefighters and sanitation workers — must have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine or have an approved exemption. They will no longer be allowed to submit to regular testing as an alternative.

The new mandate, put in place after similar requirements for teachers and health care workers led to a surge in vaccinations, is the most aggressive step taken yet to boost vaccination rates in the city.

It comes with a carrot as well as a stick: Workers who get their first doses at city-run vaccination sites between now and Oct. 29 will receive an extra $500 in their paychecks, the mayor said.

“Our public employees are going to lead us out of the Covid era,” Mr. de Blasio said on MSNBC on Wednesday morning.

New York is one of the first major cities to require vaccination for all of its workers without a testing option. San Francisco set a similar vaccine mandate for its 35,000 city workers that goes into effect Nov. 1.

The extended mandate in New York will affect roughly 160,000 employees, 46,000 of whom have not received a vaccine dose yet, city officials said. The city has more than 300,000 workers, but nearly half were already under a strict vaccine mandate because of their occupations.

Any city worker who does not get vaccinated by the deadline will be placed on unpaid leave. Medical and religious exemptions will be allowed “for a small number of employees,” a city official said.

“We need to reassure all New Yorkers that if you’re working with a public employee, they’re vaccinated,” Mr. de Blasio said.

One category of workers is being given an extra month to comply. Uniformed correction officers will have until Dec. 1 to get vaccinated, the mayor said, because of a continuing staffing crisis at the city’s Rikers Island prison complex.

The new mandate, reported first by The New York Post, supercedes a July announcement that all city employees would be required to show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing.

Vaccination rates vary among city agencies. The Department of Corrections has the lowest vaccination rate, with only 50 percent of workers having received at least one dose as of last week, according to city data. Second lowest is the city’s housing authority, with 58 percent.

In the fire department, emergency medical services and sanitation department, about 60 percent have received at least one dose; the police department is somewhat higher at 69 percent.