US San Francisco to mandate vaccines for city contractors

SAN FRANCISCO - US San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Friday issued a mayoral order mandating vaccination for all city contractors who work alongside city employees regularly at a facility owned, leased, or controlled by the city.

This mandate will also apply to all city commissioners. All contractors will be required to be fully vaccinated by Dec. 31, the announcement said.

The City Contractor Mandate will work in concert with San Francisco's Worker Vaccine Mandate, which requires all city employees to be fully vaccinated no later than Nov. 1, with earlier deadlines for those who work in high-risk facilities like jails, hospitals, and homeless shelters.

Contractors who work in high-risk settings are already required to be vaccinated under health orders. The City Contractor Mandate will ensure that all those who regularly work alongside city workers are vaccinated, according to the announcement.

"Our vaccine mandate for city employees has always been about protecting the public we serve and protecting our workforce," said Breed. "By extending the mandate to contractors who work alongside our city workers, we are continuing to do everything we can to keep our city workforce strong and healthy. Vaccines are safe and effective, and they are our path out of this pandemic."

"Vaccine requirements to those who work beside us is a natural extension of our commitment to protect our workforce and the public we serve," said City Administrator Carmen Chu.

San Francisco's city workforce has one of the highest vaccination rates of any city in the country. Currently, over 94 percent of city workers are vaccinated against COVID-19, with just over 2,000 employees out of 35,000 registered as either unvaccinated or have not yet reported their status, the announcement said.