More than a thousand members of the NYPD were vaccinated Thursday — as the deadline closed in for unvaccinated city workers to get the shot or be forced out on unpaid leave, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea said Friday.
The latest doses brought the NYPD’s vaccination rate up to 80 percent, Shea said on FOX 5’s “Good Day New York” — only hours before the 5 p.m. deadline for city workers to earn a $500 bonus for getting their first jab.
As of Monday, unvaccinated officers will be sent home without pay. Vaccinations will be offered over the weekend, the New York Post reports.
“From the police department perspective, we’re going to be OK. We have contingency plans. Those plans are being actually scaled down in terms of, you know, what percentage are we at? How would we address it to keep the cops on the street rolling?” he said.
Contingency plans include reassigning personnel who are not normally on patrol, and suspending training temporarily — a move that “frees up additional bodies,” Shea said.
“That’s before overtime is used,” he said. “That’s before tours are extended, which I really feel like I want to avoid that — it’s real tough on the family life for these officers and civilians.”
