ST PAUL, Minn. — St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter announced Thursday evening that all city workers will be required to get vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the year.
Carter says workers' initial vaccination series must be completed by Dec. 31, unless they qualify for an accommodation or religious exemption. He says to meet the requirement, workers will have to provide proof and attest to their vaccination status.
A spokesperson from the Mayor's Office confirmed Friday that attestation will need to be complete by Jan. 14 and employees who decline to provide proof of their status will not be able to work and may be subject to discipline.
"This persistent rise in positivity rates is particularly concerning as we head into winter," Carter said. "Amid our ongoing work to rebuild, we continue to hear from public health professionals, including our Minnesota Department of Health and the CDC, that the best way to prevent infection and reduce the spread of COVID is to get vaccinated."
Carter points to data from MDH, which shows the COVID positivity rate increased "threefold" since July, likely due to the delta variant. State data also shows unvaccinated Minnesotans are 15 times more likely to be hospitalized with infections and 30 times more likely to die from infections than those who have completed the vaccine series.
"This impacts each one of us individually, it impacts our families and it creates a strain on our emergency management and health care systems in our community," Carter said.
Carter went on to say the mandate will not include an opt-out for testing because community members have a "responsibility to do everything we can to protect" fellow workers and others in the community, which he says is not possible through testing.
"Since testing only provides a way to determine if someone has COVID after they've already contracted it, it offers no protection for an unvaccinated individual, nor for any individuals they interact with," he said.
Carter says more information about the mandate is forthcoming from the city's Department of Human Resources.
"Stay safe, keep your masks on, get vaccinated, and I look forward to continuing to be your teammate as we work together toward the brighter days ahead," he said.
On Facebook, Ward 7 Councilmember Jane Prince said she's "deeply disappointed" there is no testing option, which she says many frontline workers requested.
"I want to remind Mayor Carter that hundreds of our Saint Paul employees worked on the front lines when there were no safeguards from getting COVID," she said. "Why not respect the reasonable requests of our dedicated workers to put into place the same policy as our county, state and school district?"
Carter joins a number of cities and workplaces that have already introduced vaccine mandates to employees, including Gov. Tim Walz who announced in August that all state workers would be required to get vaccinated or show a negative test result weekly. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey imposed a vaccine mandate for city workers in September.