D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on Tuesday announced all city government workers, contractors, interns and grantees will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 next month.
All of these individuals will have until Sunday, Sept. 19 to be fully vaccinated, but the government will have a process for someone who wants to apply for a medical or religious exemption. Those who are exempted from the vaccine requirement will have to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
So far, 21,746 out of about 36,700 D.C. government employees have reported their vaccination status, according to a press release. Of those, about 19,900 government workers, or 54% of the workforce, have reported being fully vaccinated.
D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt said the city is seeing an increase of COVID-19 including among children 5 to 14 years old. She said the majority of new infections are among people who are not inoculated, although there has been some increase in breakthrough cases in the last month.
“But the vaccine is indeed still working,” Dr. Nesbitt said, noting that about 90% of people hospitalized are not vaccinated. “So it’s extremely important that we continue to offer all of the tools and resources to people to encourage and require vaccination where appropriate so together we can crush this virus.
“We are all better off as a community when we have more people in our community who are vaccinated. We are also going to do a better job, once everybody gets vaccinated, at helping to prevent more of these variants from taking over our communities,” she said.
The vaccine requirement applies to employees who work for agencies that report to the mayor, which covers about 32,700 employees. However, D.C. officials are recommending that all independent agencies also implement the mandate.
As of Friday, more than 51,500 D.C. residents have tested positive for COVID-19, the latest health data shows. Nearly 65% of residents are at least partially vaccinated while an estimated 55% are fully vaccinated.
