Protecting city staff
Mayor Keller among 600 ABQ staff and first responders to get vaccine.
Approximately 600 city of Albuquerque employees — about 10% of the municipal government workforce — have received the COVID-19 vaccine so far, including hundreds of first responders and Mayor Tim Keller.
The numbers include at least 317 firefighters and 218 police officers, a city spokeswoman said Friday.
The city would not provide the Journal the priority list used to guide vaccine distribution to its employees, citing privacy and security concerns.
But spokeswoman Maia Rodriguez said in an email that the city’s Emergency Operations Center has “longstanding protocols in place that are based on risks for all City employees, as well as critical continuity of government factors.” She said the city considers workers’ age and level of contact with others and is heeding the New Mexico Department of Health’s vaccine phase guidelines.
“All those we have offered the vaccine to are clearly eligible,” she wrote.
About 70 city employees outside the police and fire departments have received shots, she said. That includes staff working with people who are homeless, employees at COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites and the mayor.
“The mayor was vaccinated after hundreds of other city employees because under the charter, he’s the Chief Executive Officer of the City responsible for running the city on a day-to-day basis,” Rodriguez wrote.
She declined to say if anyone else in the mayor’s office has received the vaccine.