Three weeks after the deadline for City of San Diego Employees to be fully vaccinated has passed, more than 1,400 employees remain either not fully vaccinated or have declined to submit a response about their status to the city's Human Resources department, according to data provided to NBC 7 by the city.
To the city, “fully vaccinated” means San Diego has documented the employee received, at least 14 days prior, either the second dose in a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series or a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
Since Dec.1, the date on which the deadline took effect, 437 employees have become fully vaccinated. The largest population of city employees who remain not fully vaccinated are members of the city's Police Officers Association (POA) -- the union for the San Diego Police Department.
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Five hundred thirty-five POA union employees remain not fully vaccinated, and another 45 have not shared their status. This accounts for just less than 30% of San Diego Police Department sworn employees.
Of the more than 1,400 employees who are either not fully vaccinated or have declined to submit a response about their status, more than 1,000 submitted reasonable accommodation vaccination exemption requests.
Employees were able to submit requests to the city for reasonable exemption from the vaccine mandate beginning Nov. 1, 2021. Requests were allowed for both Medical and Religious exemptions, but not for personal belief.
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“Once we have hit the deadline, exhausted the administrative process, considered all the exemptions for both religious and medical reasons, there may be folks that will have to be terminated,” San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria told NBC 7 earlier this month. “I don’t want to lose one member of our city family. That’s precisely why we are moving forward with this mandate. I don’t want to lose anyone to the mandate, I also don’t want to lose them to COVID-19,” Gloria added.
There have been no announcements as to whether or not the city would require its employees to also receive the booster shot, such as the requirement for California healthcare workers announced by Governor Gavin Newsom Wednesday afternoon.
