Adams Defends Looming Termination Deadline For 4K City Workers

NEW YORK CITY — An ultimatum for New York City public workers to finally get vaccinated against COVID-19 is all about one thing, said Mayor Eric Adams: safety.

"Safety is not only to stop a bullet, a knife or some other item: safety is COVID," he said at City Hall this week. "COVID is taking lives."

Adams gave this justification when questioned about his administration's decision to give unvaccinated city workers until Feb. 11 to get their full set of doses or else be fired.

The ultimatum applies to roughly 4,000 city workers, City Hall officials said.

The workers fall into two categories — less than 1,000 of workers hired after Aug. 2 and about 3,000 employees who are on leave without pay and elected not to continue taking health benefits.

Those 3,000 or so workers include an unspecified number of NYPD officers, FDNY firefighters and Department of Correction guards, whose unions have not reached agreements that allow unvaccinated employees to receive health benefits.

Officials said those public safety workers, as well as other employees who fall under the deadline, have been off the job for since the citywide vaccine mandate took effect Nov. 1.

More than 90 percent of all 370,000 city workers are full vaccinated, data shows.

The potential firings would be a fraction of city workers, but come amid a surge in high-profile gun crimes.

Adams said city employees must comply with the rule, which he emphasized is about public safety.

"There must be rules and we must follow them," he said. "The rule is to get vaccinated, if you are a city employee."