About 70% of Tampa city workers meet COVID-19 vaccine deadline, officials say

TAMPA, Fla. - Tampa city workers had until Thursday to follow the mayor’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate after the requirement was announced August 25, and so far city officials said at least 70% of workers are vaccinated.

"I'm seeing numbers coming in in the 70, 80 percentile of vaccinations in my portfolio," said John Bennett, the chief of staff for the city of Tampa. "We're seeing good hallway compliance is what I would discuss, evidence of folks that are complying with the policy, but it'll take a little bit to accumulate any data. We're really not looking at names. We're looking at just the aggregation of compliance."  

The rules for the 4,700 city employees have some exceptions for those who don’t want the shot and allows for other options in place of vaccination beyond religious or medical exemptions.

"Some of them wanted to prove that they had the antibodies related to COVID, and they didn't need the vaccine. And the other option was if you didn't have the antibodies and you could not take the vaccine, that you can take a weekly test. You can make sure you wore a protective mask when you were in the common areas or in a vehicle with more than one person doing city work," said Bennett. 

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The weekly COVID tests are the worker’s responsibility and their cost. Local unions for police and firefighters helped negotiate choices beyond vaccination.

"It's turning out that a lot of them, and this is anecdotal, a lot more people have antibodies than we thought or than they knew. So we've got the antibody serving as a vaccine substitute," said Tampa Police Benevolent Association spokesperson Danny Alvarez.

It’s unclear how long antibodies last from natural infection, so the city will require those workers to get tested four times a year, Alvarez said.

"We really wish that there was no vaccine mandate, that that always stayed a personal (choice). But we understand that we have one and now we're adhering to those rules," said Alvarez.

There are consequences if someone does not follow the rules, and it could ultimately cost that worker their job. 

"If we did find somebody who was not complying with the policy as it goes on, we would just look to what we always do is progressive discipline. But that's not the goal of the plan," said Bennett.

Tampa firefighters’ union president Andrew Carter said Tampa’s vaccine mandate is much better than other policies he’s seen across the state. The city’s chief of staff said the city’s main goal is to have healthy workers in public service, so city leaders said they will keep encouraging vaccines as the best way to protect themselves and others.