Stamford Police Department Last In Vax Rate For City Employees

STAMFORD, CT — The Stamford Police Department is currently last among all city employee groups for reported vaccination rates, according to the latest update from Mayor David Martin.

Martin held his biweekly COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday night, and said as of Oct. 12, the reported SPD vaccination rate was at just over 60 percent.

"Obviously," Martin said, "we'd like to see that [number] go up."

Overall, 1,347 out of 1,646 (81.3 percent) of all Stamford employees (full-time, part-time, seasonal) reported that they are fully vaccinated.

"If they do not have a vaccination, they have to provide proof that they have a test that shows negative, or we are providing tests for almost 300 employees. That number keeps going down every week," Martin said. "There will be actions taken against employees who are unwilling to be tested or do not have vaccination proof."

David O'Meara, President of the Stamford Police Association, said in an email to Patch, "The SPA feels the vaccine is a medical decision that its members must make in consultation with their own healthcare physicians. We will not comment on individuals decisions regarding the vaccine."

There has been some tension between Martin and the SPA recently, as the association penned a Letter To The Editor in August criticizing Martin's vaccine mandate for city employees and mask mandate for city residents.

"With the swoop of a pen Mayor Martin, who is in the midst of a hotly contested re-election campaign, decided that he, and his administration of bureaucrats, should have the ultimate say in the personal decisions his employees make, merely because we are employed by him," the SPA said in August. Since then, Martin lost the Democratic primary in September to State Rep. Caroline Simmons and will not appear on the Nov. 2 ballot. "The Mayor is pushing this agenda under the guise that it is his responsibility to keep his employees, and the citizens they interact with, safe from community spread."

During his update Tuesday, Martin pointed to the mandates in August as a potential reason for declining cases since then. As a result, he gave the OK for residents to go out trick-or-treating this Halloween.

"I don't know that it has truly caused an effect, but this stronger approach to mask mandates and vaccinations has [led to a declining case] trend here," Martin said.

In the general Stamford population, Martin said vaccination numbers are strong.

As of this week, according to state data, 78 percent of the total population in Stamford has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, which translates to about 88 percent of the eligible population.

Martin stressed that the data is based on old census numbers and doesn't reflect the recent change in population throughout the city, so the vaccination rates are actually higher than what's reported.

Vaccination rates by age group in the city of Stamford are as follows, according to Acting Health Director Jody Bishop-Pullen.

• 12 to 17: 72.25 percent fully vaccinated, 85.3 percent at least one dose
• 18 to 24: 66.58 percent fully vaccinated, 79.3 percent at least one dose
• 15 to 44: 78.93 percent fully vaccinated, 88.6 percent at least one dose
• 45 to 64: 88.55 percent fully vaccinated, 95.6 percent at least one dose
• 65-plus: 97.3 percent fully vaccinated, 100 percent at least one dose

"We still need to do a little better work with that younger population, 18 to 24, which seems to be the lowest rate of fully vaccinated. Each week we make strides in how many of our residents are getting vaccinated," Bishop-Pullen said. "It's the best mitigation strategy we have against this virus."