Officials in New York City are investigating allegations that hundreds of firefighters and sanitation workers used forged vaccination cards to evade Mayor Bill de Blasio's COVID vaccine mandate.
At least 50 DSNY workers have been suspended for providing fake vaccine records, and FDNY officials are investigating the theft of blank vaccine cards from department vaccination sites, according to the New York Post.
The city Department of Investigation is reportedly aware of the allegations and in the early stages of a probe.
At the FDNY, a brazen scheme apparently involved the theft of blank cards from headquarters and other sites where agency’s Incident Management Team had been dispensing the shot.
Mayor Bill de Blasio's vaccine mandate for all city employees took effect on November 1, but some city workers have reportedly been finding creative ways to evade it
Officials in New York City are investigating allegations that hundreds of firefighters and sanitation workers used forged vaccination cards to evade vaccine mandates (file photo)
FDNY officials are investigating the theft of blank vaccine cards from a department vaccination site. An example vaccine card is seen in a file photo
In a memo to firefighters, FDNY warned that forging a vaccine card to prove compliance with the policy may be a felony, according to the Post.
Sanitation workers have allegedly been providing fake vaccination credentials obtained from workers at CVS pharmacies in Staten Island and Brooklyn.
CVS workers reportedly submitted false data to the state that workers were receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot, but the scheme blew up because the chain is not actually distributing that brand of vaccine.
De Blasio's vaccine mandate for all city employees took effect on November 1, and has been met with stiff resistance from some quarters.
As of Thursday, 93 percent of all city employees had received at lease one vaccine dose.
But the rates remain lower in NYPD (86 percent), FDNY (85 percent) and DSNY (87 percent).
Thousands of municipal workers, including FDNY, NYPD and DSNY march in protest of the mayor's vaccine mandate before it took effect last month
The Department of Corrections has the lowest vaccination rate of any city department, at 63 percent, according to city data.
Amid the tension, de Blasio struck a deal with four major municipal labor unions, including its largest, which will see some workers allowed to stay at work without having their COVID vaccines.
Those represented by District Council 37, Teamsters Local 237, the Uniformed Sanitationmen's Association Local 831 and SEIU Local 300, will be able to apply for paid leave if they submitted requests for religious or medical exemptions by October 29.
The unions who agreed to the deal represent thousand's of the city's maintenance, clerical, sanitation, technical, public housing, health and education employees.
Not included in the deal are the city's emergency workers and the bulk of the sanitation employees.
City workers are seen marching over the Brooklyn Bridge in protest of the mandate
Anyone who's applied for an exemption must also submit to weekly COVID testing.
Those who decide to not get vaccinated or whose requests are rejected will be able to either resign or take six months unpaid leave and keep their health benefits until June 30.
An employee can choose to return at any time during that six months if they choose to get vaccinated.
'Vaccinations are critical to our recovery and our city workforce is leading the way,' de Blasio said earlier this month.
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