New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this week that public education employees have until Friday to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The mayor said public school employees have until 5 p.m. on October 1 to become at least partially vaccinated.
“If you have not gotten that first dose Friday, 5 p.m., we will assume you are not coming to work on Monday, and you will not be paid starting Monday, and we will fill your role with a substitute or an alternative employee,” he said during a press conference.
The mayor’s announcement is legal after a three-judge panel from the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the city’s vaccine mandate may move forward.
“Vaccinations are our strongest tool in the fight against COVID-19 – this ruling is on the right side of the law and will protect our students and staff,” the city’s Department of Education said in a statement.
According to Fox News, the mayor also added that about 87 percent of Department of Education employees have already received at least one dose, including 90 percent of teachers and 97 percent of principals.
“For parents and kids, this should be a real sense of relief to see the numbers are already so high,” de Blasio said. “And that says great things about our ability to have a safe school system and keep everything moving.”
An attorney for the United Federation of Teachers, Louis Gelormino, said he will appeal the case.
New York’s governor Kathy Hochul has also recently made headlines for pushing COVID-19 vaccines. As Christian Headlines previously reported, on Sunday, Hochul spoke at the Cultural Christian Center megachurch in Brooklyn, New York, where she asked congregants to encourage their vaccine-hesitant friends and family members to get vaccinated. Also while speaking at the megachurch, Hochul asserted that God had answered our prayers to end the pandemic by providing us with the vaccine.
Related:
NY Gov. Kathy Hochul Says Vaccine Was God's Answer to Our Prayers for an End to the Pandemic
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Stringer
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
