A little more than two dozen NYPD officers were placed on unpaid leave after the deadline for a COVID-19 vaccine mandate passed, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said.
Shea said 34 cops and 40 civilian members of the force — which account for fewer than 0.15% of NYPD employees — did not comply with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mandate requiring most city workers to get vaccinated by November 1, according to the New York Post.
This is a dramatic difference from the 10,000 cops some NYPD union officials threatened would be pulled off the streets if the mandate was imposed.
According to Shea, NYPD has a current vaccination rate of 85 percent, a 15-point jump from last week. The vast majority of the “thousands” of remaining unvaccinated officers still on the force have applications for religious or medical exemptions pending.
Officers with pending applications went to work as planned “and there is literally no effect on service at this point,” Shea said at a press conference.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said approximately 9,000 city employees—out of a workforce of 378,000— are on leave without pay as of Monday for not complying with vaccine mandate regulations, according to CNN.
