Several organizations have offered incentives for Americans to get fully vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus. Now, with widespread mandates and the Omicron variant, one city is taking its municipal employee vaccine mandate a step further and issuing payment to workers who get fully vaccinated by the city's deadline.
On Tuesday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, and City Administrator Christopher Shorter announced that the city authorized a one-time $1,000 payment to fully vaccinated municipal employees. This comes in an effort to increase vaccination rates among city employees.
All current fully-vaccinated City of Baltimore employees are eligible to receive the payment. Those who become fully vaccinated by Jan. 14, 2022, are eligible as well.
According to a press release from Scott's office, municipal employees currently have a vaccine mandate in place, where employees have until the Jan. 14 deadline to be fully vaccinated or be subject to weekly Wuhan coronavirus testing. Vaccinated employees are required to upload their vaccine proof to comply with the mandate and receive the $1,000.
"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 in the statement. "I want to thank all of our employees who have already uploaded their vaccination status, and to all of our workers who haven’t received their vaccine yet, now is the best time to do so."
The press release notes that to date, 66.66 percent of Baltimore residents aged 18 and older are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Baltimore City's Department of Human Resources (DHR) reports that 9,238 employees are fully vaccinated and 3,303 have yet to report their vaccination status.
"Employees who do not upload their vaccination status and do not comply with the city's weekly testing option will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination," the press release states.