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Mounting trash. Closed firehouses. Fewer police and ambulances on the street.
That’s the possibility New York City is bracing for when the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees officially goes into effect, potentially putting the thousands of municipal workers remain unwilling to get the shots on unpaid leave starting Monday.
Police officers, firefighters, garbage collectors and most other city workers face a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to show proof they’ve gotten at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
A Staten Island judge on Wednesday refused a police union’s request for a temporary restraining order on the mandate, but she ordered city officials into her courtroom next month to explain why the requirement shouldn’t be reversed. If the mandate is deemed illegal, workers put on leave will be given back pay, the city said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio held firm on the mandate as firefighters rallied Thursday outside his official residence, sanitation workers appeared to be skipping garbage pick ups in protest and the city’s largest police union went to an appeals court seeking a halt to the vaccine requirement.