71% of city’s employees are fully vaccinated
STAMFORD — Of the city’s more than 1,200 full-time employees, 71 percent are documented as fully vaccinated one week after its vaccine mandate went into effect, reported Stamford officials.
The city employs 1,202 full-time staff, and 852 of its workers have submitted proof to the city showing full immunization against COVID-19. The mayoral administration maintains that the count of vaccinated employees will grow as more people submit documentation to Human Resources.
“The numbers are still coming in and are continuing to rise every day,” City spokesperson Rachel LaBella said. Stamford’s vaccination count excludes any part-time,
seasonal and Board of Education employees.
The Government Center’s documented vaccination rate mirrors the city’s overall proportion of vaccinated residents closely. Citywide, 76 percent of residents have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which exceeds the vaccination rate in all of Connecticut’s other cities.
The day Mayor David Martin’s vaccine mandate for municipal employees went into effect, the city divulged that, of the 1,990 people working for the city, 1,000 employees had submitted proof of vaccination. Another six employees documented that they have a single dose, according to Director of Human Resources Al Cava told The Stamford Advocate in a statement.
The original figures included part-time, seasonal and Board of Education employees, something LaBella contended distorts the picture of how the city operates currently.
“Many... have not returned in person after the pandemic and should not have counted toward the final count of official city employees,” LaBella said.
Starting the week of Sept. 13, all unvaccinated city workers must provide a negative COVID-19 test result to human resources. However, according to Mayoral Special Assistant Laura Burwick, the city has yet to hire a company to do the employee testing.
Labella told the Advocate that employees have “until the end of each week” to prove negativity. Unvaccinated city employees are permitted paid time off from work to meet the testing requirement, according to Martin’s initial decree.
Though the testing initiative is still in its infancy, LaBella confirmed that there are no “reports of employee plans to refuse (both) the vaccine and testing requirement.
“Should employees decline to get vaccinated or partake in the testing requirement, they would be subject to discipline under the terms of the Mayor’s executive order,” she said. These terms could include termination, according to Martin’s executive order.