Milwaukee to require vaccine for city employees.
Mandate begins Sept. 1, has medical or religious exceptions
City of Milwaukee employees will be required to be vaccinated or face consequences up to termination, Mayor Tom Barrett said Tuesday.
The announcement comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday gave full approval to the PfizerBioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and as the delta variant has taken hold in Wisconsin, with more than 2,000 cases, 800 hospitalizations and 21 deaths reported Tuesday. The new COVID-19 cases reached a high last seen in January.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office reported seven COVID-19 related deaths between Sunday and Monday. The youngest person to die was a 46-year-old man and the oldest was an 89-year-old man, according to the Medical Examiner’s online dashboard.
Two of five people who died on Monday were fully vaccinated, two had unknown vaccination statuses and the fifth was not vaccinated, the Medical Examiner’s Office said in a tweet Tuesday morning.
The city’s requirement goes into effect Sept. 1 and employees will have until Oct. 29 to provide proof of vaccination.
“We’re doing this because we have an obligation to provide a safe workplace for all of our employees, and a vaccinated workforce is part of that,” Barrett said. “A vaccinated workforce also helps protect members of the public who interact with employees.”
The mandate affects only “general city” employees, meaning police and fire employees, who are represented by unions, are not currently included.
Barrett said there would be exemptions for “specific medical or religious criteria.”
Employees who do not comply will first be suspended without pay for up to 30 days. If they do not then comply, they will be fired, according to the city.
The two-dose Pfizer vaccine had previously been available under FDA emergency use authorization, and more vaccine mandates had been expected to follow its full approval.
As of Tuesday, the city remained in the “extreme transmission” category for COVID-19 cases, with 225.9 confirmed cases per 100,000 people.
Milwaukee County has 229 residents hospitalized, with an average of 254 new cases per day — an increase from an average of 250 new cases per day during the last three weeks — and two deaths per day.
Milwaukee County holds off on mandate
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley said while a mandate is not off the table, it will not be implemented at this point for Milwaukee County employees.
The county plans to continue collecting data before making a final decision about a mandate, he said.
Earlier in the week, four members of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors proposed a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for all county employees.
A proposal led by District 4 Supervisor Ryan Clancy called on Crowley “to require all County employees to get vaccinated, and provide positive incentives to facilitate voluntary vaccinations,” according to a statement released on Monday.
Milwaukee County tracks the number of vaccinated employees through its employee vaccination incentive program, Vaccin8. The overall number of Vaccin8 submissions as of this August 18 was 1,907, which is approximately 47% of the workforce and mirrors community vaccination rates, according to Crowley’s office.
The voluntary program gives fully vaccinated employees up to eight additional hours of paid time off.
Latest COVID-19 numbers
New cases reported: 2,170
New deaths reported: 21 Number hospitalized: 804 (intensive care: 244); up 626 patients from a month ago
Seven-day average of daily cases: 1,369 (up 1,059 cases from one month ago)
Seven-day average of daily deaths: 8 (up 7 deaths from one month ago)
Seven-day average positivity rate — as a share of all tests given: 7.6%
Total cases since the start of pandemic: 649,636
Total deaths: 7,549
Latest vaccine numbers
Total doses administered:
6,026,120
Daily doses administered: 4,427 Seven-day average of daily doses: 7,604
Residents who have received one dose: 3,143,003 (54% of the population)
Residents who are fully vaccinated: 2,957,353 (50.8% of the population)
Adults who have received one dose: 2,954,296 (64.8% of the 18+ population)
Adults who are fully vaccinated: 2,797,521 (61.4% of the 18+ population)
Residents ages 12 to 15 with at least one dose: 119,198 (40.2% of age group)
Residents ages 16 to 17 with at least one dose: 69,475 (47.1% of age group)
Residents ages 18 to 24 with at least one dose: 259,532 (47.5% of age group)
Residents ages 25 to 34 with at least one dose: 383,624 (51.8% of age group)
Residents ages 35 to 44 with at least one dose: 425,274 (59.6% of age group)
Residents ages 45 to 54 with at least one dose: 440,179 (61.5% of age group)
Residents ages 55 to 64 with at least one dose: 585,845 (71.2% of age group)
Residents 65 and older with at least one dose: 859,842 (84.5% of age group)
Variant cases of concern
DHS, the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene and other laboratory partners regularly perform whole genome sequencing on a portion of positive tests. The numbers below do not represent the total number of variant cases.
Cases of the alpha (B.1.1.7) variant: 3,623
Cases of the beta (B.1.351) variant: 67
Cases of the delta (B.1.617.2) variant: 1,964 (100% of tests sequenced during the week of Aug. 8— the latest week with results)
Cases of the gamma (P.1): variant:
344