As of Friday, 483 employees of the Department of Correction were out of compliance with Gov. Ned Lamont’s mandate they be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus or submit weekly testing results.
The number amounts to around 9% of the DOC, which has more employees than any other single state agency. According to a Friday afternoon update from the Lamont administration, 3,343 corrections workers — around 62% of the workforce — had been vaccinated. Another 1,574 had submitted weekly testing results.
The number of people out of compliance in the agency had grown significantly since the administration’s last update on Oct. 7, when only 122 DOC employees were listed as non-compliant, which suggests the discrepancy stems from test reporting. According to the Friday email, overall compliance from state workers was at 95% this week but the percentage grew when late tests were accounted for.
“When including those who are temporarily out of compliance due to incomplete or late testing result submissions and are in the process of becoming compliant, that percentage increases to more than 99%,” the update read.
Most state workers who were cooperating with the order had opted to be vaccinated. As of Friday more than 80% were fully vaccinated.
The Lamont administration also reported that disciplinary actions were being taken against more than 100 state workers. So far, 22 state workers had so far been fired for refusing the mandate, 29 had been put on unpaid leave and another 70 were being processed for unpaid leave, according to a press release. The administration also corrected a previous update which had indicated that 28 state workers had been terminated. That number included six employees removed from state service for reasons unrelated to the vaccine order.
