Baltimore announced on Tuesday that it will give a one-time incentive of $1,000 to fully vaccinated municipal employees.
Mayor Brandon Scott (D) and City Administrator Christopher Shorter said in an official release that the payment will be made to all employees who are now fully vaccinated and those who become so by Jan. 14.
The move follows the city’s announcement in October that it will be mandating vaccinations for employees.
Those who do not get vaccinated must submit to weekly testing. Anyone who refuses both vaccination and testing will be subject to disciplinary action, potentially including termination.
According to data from Baltimore’s Department of Human Resources, 9,238 employees are fully vaccinated and 3,303 have yet to report their vaccination status. The vaccination data received shows a vaccination rate of 73 percent, the city said in a statement.
So far only 66.6 percent of Baltimore residents at large aged 18 years and up are fully vaccinated.
Officials added that funding from the American Rescue Plan Act will be used to pay for the incentive program.
“This incentive is about doing everything in our power to protect our employees and our residents. We are still in a pandemic. People are still losing their lives and getting seriously ill because they are not vaccinated,” Scott said.
“It is our hope that together the vaccine mandate and incentive program will push more of our City employees to get vaccinated and upload their status,” Shorter said.
“We remain focused on prioritizing the safety of our workforce and the communities they serve so that we can continue to provide efficient and effective services throughout this pandemic,” Shorter added.
The city has received pushback over its mandate from the local Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which has told its officers not to disclose their COVID-19 vaccination status.
In a letter sent to officers in October, FOP3 President Mike Mancuso said the union was trying to delay the policy until the two sides reach a bargaining agreement, WBAL-TV reported.
Baltimore’s vaccine incentive for city employees comes as a federal judge in Georgia on Tuesday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for federal contractors across the country.
Federal contractors were facing a Jan. 18 deadline to be fully vaccinated.
Thousands of police officers, paramedics and health care professionals in several states have pushed back on vaccine mandates implemented by their respective states.