Philadelphia is requiring all city employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Jan. 14, 2022, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health announced Friday.
City employees can submit requests for religious and medical exemptions to the mandate until Dec. 20, and will receive $300 bonuses if they provide proof of vaccination by Dec 24.
Employees who are not vaccinated by Jan. 14 will have 15 days of unpaid leave to get vaccinated, and will be terminated after if they fail to do so, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
“As public servants, we bear a responsibility to help protect the health of our colleagues and the public we serve,” wrote Mayor Jim Kenney in a tweet.
The majority of city employees are vaccinated. The city’s law department has the highest vaccination rate, with 91 to 100 percent of its employees fully vaccinated, while the Streets Department has the lowest, with just 41 to 50 percent of its employees vaccinated, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.
In August, the City of Philadelphia mandated all health care workers, faculty and students at local colleges and universities be vaccinated by Oct. 15, and later extended the mandate’s deadline to Nov. 15, The Temple News reported.
More than 1.2 million Philadelphians have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, of which one million are fully vaccinated, according to the city’s COVID-19 dashboard.
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