The largest municipal force in the U.S. has thousands on unpaid leave over vaccines

Thousands of New York municipal workers, including police officers and firefighters, have chosen unpaid leave rather than getting inoculated against COVID-19, as the city's vaccine mandate went into effect.

Speaking on Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, said he expected no disruptions as a result of some 9,000 city employees, or about 6% of the 378,000-strong workforce, getting put on unpaid leave for failing to get a shot. Those workers must show proof of at least one dose of a vaccination to return to work, according to the Oct. 20 order.

However, last-minute compliance with the order substantially reduced the number of employees who might have been affected, city officials said. De Blasio tweeted on Saturday that 2,300 city workers were immunized on that day alone.

"More than half of the workers who haven't been vaccinated yet have submitted exemption requests and those requests are being processed," he wrote on Twitter.

The eleventh-hour surge brought to 91% the percentage of those vaccinated, up from 86% late last week, de Blasio said.