St. Paul Adopts Strict COVID-19 Vaccination Requirements for All 4,000 City Officials – Twin Cities

Employees in the city of St. Paul must be fully vaccinated with COVID-19 by the end of the year.

Mayor Melvin Carter announced a new vaccine mandate on Thursday afternoon at a video address sent to all about 4,000 workers in the city, according to a spokesman for the mayor’s office.

City employees must receive the complete vaccine series by 31 December and must submit proof of vaccination by 14 January. Carter said in the video.

A spokesman for the mayor said employees who chose not to be vaccinated would not be allowed to work and could be subject to disciplinary action.

“Not being vaccinated poses a lasting risk to all of us, including family, friends, colleagues, residents, workers, businesses and visitors, who we all serve every day,” he said. Said. “We will continue to fight the virus for the next few days, weeks and months, and we will all be vaccinated so that everyone on Team St. Paul can continue to serve our community. I need to receive it. “

Unlike the obligation of vaccine Covers Minneapolis Municipal Employees, St. Pauls does not offer regular testing options on behalf of jabs, causing potential clashes with city members.

However, some employees may be entitled to “accommodation or religious exemptions,” Carter said in a video address.

The announcement will be made more than two months after the St. Paul’s City Council Unanimously passed a resolution We recommend that the mayor’s office “investigate the COVID-19 vaccination requirements for all employees in the city.”

The resolution was hit by resistance from some city workers who opposed the mandatory vaccine. During a face-to-face council meeting At the Como Park Pavilion last week.

City council member Mitra Jalari strongly supported the city’s new policy, saying it was “the clearest and cleanest way to ensure that everyone is safe.”

“We want to keep people from getting sick. Science teaches us that the best way to do that is to get vaccinated,” Galali said. “If you serve our community as a city employee, you are interacting with so many different people that you cannot expose our community to the virus.”

Councilor Chris Tourbat also expressed support for the new policy.

“I think our primary concern should be the public health and public safety of our community and our workforce,” he said. “The only way to get out of this deadly and protracted pandemic is to vaccinate people. It’s time for people to get vaccinated.”

However, councilor Jane Prince criticized the policy in a Facebook post, calling it “the most stringent immunization obligation of any Minnesota municipality to date.”

“I strongly support vaccination for everyone, but Mayor Melvin Carter ignores the rational demands of employees and their unions to follow the same policy in Minnesota, Ramsey County, for vaccination. I’m deeply disappointed that I’ve just announced my obligations, and at St. Paul’s Public School, Minneapolis City, Hennepin County, and the University of Minnesota, regular vaccinations are available instead of vaccinations, “Prince wrote.

In explaining why St. Paul’s requirements abandon test options, Carter said: They interact. “

Mark Ross, chairman of the St. Paul’s Police Federation, said the task was likely to cost city employees.

“I’m disappointed that I don’t have a test option,” Ross said. “The result is definitely the loss of a few cops. That would be a burden to our entire department …. Now we can’t afford to lose one officer.”

Jalali acknowledged that some city officials may resign as a result of the new policy.

“I think it might be the result, but the alternatives are much more harmful on a larger scale,” she said. “I think this is correct.”

In his video address on Thursday, Carter pointed out New data released on Wednesday Unvaccinated people infected with COVID-19 are 15 times more likely to be hospitalized and 30 times more likely to die than fully vaccinated people, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. increase.

Details on this requirement will be announced by the city’s Ministry of Human Resources on Friday, according to a mayor spokesman.