More than a quarter of the Los Angeles Police Department’s and Los Angeles Fire Department’s sworn members remain unvaccinated ahead of the city’s Wednesday deadline for municipal workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
According to LAPD data, 33.7% of the department’s sworn officers have not yet been vaccinated.
About 26% of LAFD’s sworn members have not been vaccinated.
In August, the Los Angeles City Council and Mayor Eric Garcetti approved an ordinance requiring all city employees to be vaccinated by October 19 except those with a medical or religious exemption.
LAFD said the department had received 108 medical exemptions and 389 religious exemptions among sworn members as of October 5.
It is not clear what will happen to employees who do not provide vaccine verification by Wednesday.
The LAFD said it is waiting on further directions while city leaders continue discussing the issue with labor unions.
“We will continue to educate, encourage, and incentivize vaccinations to work towards the City’s goal of a fully vaccinated workforce,” the LAFD said.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), which has about 18,000 employees, had its own vaccine mandate for employees starting October 1. Because LASD employees work for Los Angeles County, not the city, the department said the October 20 deadline does not apply to them.
Last week, LASD Sheriff Alex Villanueva said he will not enforce such a mandate.
“I don’t want to be in a position to lose 5, 10% of my workforce overnight on a vaccine mandate,” Villanueva said.
“The Department will continue requiring all of our employees to register with the Fulgent system but will only seek voluntary compliance and testing for the unvaccinated,” LASD said in a statement to CNN.
CNN has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Protective League and the mayor’s office for comment.