Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh says the city’s vaccination policy is working. The city has required all employees of city government to show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations or be tested weekly for the virus since early September. Walsh said as of now, 97% of employees are complying with the rules.
"We’re working towards 100-percent. We’re gonna get there,” said Walsh. “We’ve seen great cooperation and partnership with not only department heads and staff, but labor leaders. And that’s reflected in the numbers. There’s been a steady increase in compliance rate.”
Walsh said 74% percent of city workers have shown proof of a COVID vaccination, and the compliance is spread pretty evenly across city departments. For those who don’t comply, there are verbal and written reprimands.
“In addition to avoiding people contracting COVID, the other benefit of the program is we’re finding it,” Walsh said. “We’re identifying where cases are and isolating them before we have spread in a department. So generally it is working the way we anticipated.”
Walsh noted the city hasn’t had to terminate any employee for failing to follow the rules. But while the vaccination rate for city employees is nearly 75%, the rate for city residents is much lower. Walsh said that 64% of adults have had one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but only 48% of the city’s population is fully vaccinated.
Walsh called it a “work in progress,” but Gov. Kathy Hochul is more concerned. The 7-day positivity rate across upstate New York has been rising. In the central New York region, it’s 5.66%. In the Finger Lakes region, it’s 8.73%. Hochul said yesterday that any adult in New York who lives in a region with a positivity rate higher than “four or five percent” can get a booster shot if they want one.
