About 9,000 New York City municipal workers were put on unpaid leave for refusing to comply with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate that took effect on Monday and thousands of city firefighters have called out sick in an apparent protest over the requirement, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
About nine in 10 city workers covered by the mandate have gotten vaccinated and there have been no disruptions to city services as a result of staffing shortages, De Blasio told reporters at his daily news briefing.
New York has more than 300,000 city employees.
Firehouses remained open, but 18 of the department’s