The city of Chicago will require COVID vaccines for all city employees this fall, Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced Wednesday.
“As COVID-19 cases continue to increase, we must take all necessary steps and are at our disposal to keep everyone in our city safe and sound,” Lightfoot said in a statement. “Vaccination has been shown to be the best way to achieve this and to recover from this devastating pandemic. So we have decided to join other municipalities and government agencies across the country, including the US military.” that they make this decision to protect the people who keep our cities and our country moving. We have also been in close communication with our partners in the labor movement to create a viable, fair and effective vaccination policy. ”
The policy will take effect on October 15 and requires all employees and volunteers in the city to be fully vaccinated before that date. Employees may apply for medical or religious exemptions, but those applications will be reviewed by the Human Resources department on a case-by-case basis, the city said.
“The data show that getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself and those you come in contact with against serious illness, hospitalization or death from COVID-19,” the department’s commissioner said in a statement. of Chicago Public Health, Dr. Allison Arwady. “Adopting and implementing this requirement is the responsible and common sense approach, so we see that many other government agencies, companies, institutions and organizations are following this line of action.”
“Fully vaccinated” is defined as two weeks after the second dose of a mRNA dose vaccine or two weeks after a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Employees will be required to submit vaccination tests through an online vaccine portal COVID-19.
News of a potential mandate for the city’s thousands of employees arrived earlier this week, the same day the U.S. granted full approval of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The Chicago Labor Federation criticized the new policy saying they believe in the benefits of vaccination, “we don’t believe punitive warrants are the right way to significantly increase vaccine upgrades.”
“In fact, we believe this announcement may toughen opposition to the vaccine instead of protecting workers who have sacrificed so much over the past 18 months,” Chicago Labor Federation President Bob Reiter said in a statement . discussions with the city on a proposed vaccination policy and we hope that this process can be resolved through policy formulation, not through public communications. However, any discussion around a vaccination policy should not only include medical and religious exemptions, but also try alternatives, as we continue to build confidence around the benefits of voluntary vaccination. “
As the nation experienced an increase in Delta variant cases, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced earlier this month vaccine requirements for employees of congregant care centers administered by the state, including veterans’ homes and correctional facilities.
“In general, residents of these state facilities have done what they can to protect themselves by getting vaccinated,” he said at the time. “However, many of the long-term care facility employees have not been vaccinated.”
State agencies will be required to make the vaccine available to employees and negotiations will be held with unions on the implementation of the new requirements.
Last week, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle announced a mandatory vaccination policy for county workers, saying it is “the pragmatic and responsible thing to do while we work to leave the pandemic behind.” According to a press release, county employees must be vaccinated before Oct. 15.