Beckley Council taking a vote to award fully vaccinated city employees

BECKLEY, WV (WOAY) – Employees for the City of Beckley may soon be eligible for a $500 incentive to get the COVID-19 vaccine in an effort to motivate them in helping to mitigate the spread.

The Beckley Common Council is now in the process of voting on such an incentive.

“It will be those who are currently un-vaccinated, if they’re fully vaccinated by a certain date, which as I understand may be around the first of December, then they will be eligible for this $500 vaccination bonus,” says Beckley Mayor Rob Rappold.

In addition, city employees who have already been fully vaccinated will also receive a bonus as recognition for taking the initiative in protecting themselves and their co-workers. Mayor Rappold believes this will be a good motivator to increase vaccine rates.

“If you couple what we’re trying to do as a city with what President Biden has suggested at the national level for larger employees, we think it will have the type of effect that we think is good,” he says.

With the total number of active COVID-19 cases in the state pushing nearly 30,000, and only a little over half of Americans currently being fully vaccinated nationwide, the Mayor hopes these compensated employee vaccines will soon lead to better results.

“Anything we as a city can do to get that balance of those vaccinated and those with anti-bodies sufficient to the point that we can be considered a community that has herd immunity, perhaps then we can all breathe a sigh of relief,” adds Rappold.

However, the City of Beckley’s vaccination rate of over 80% now tops that of the U.S population’s total COVID-19 vaccine rate.

If the Beckley employee vaccine vote is passed, workers will immediately be eligible to receive the bonus after they have shown their vaccination card.

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