NEWBERRY — The City of Newberry instituted an incentive for city staff to get the COVID-19 vaccination and those who have already received it, on Sept. 14.
“Everyone here has been getting vaccines their whole life. The vaccines for COVID-19 help greatly and are effective. I checked the numbers this afternoon (Sept. 14) for Prisma Health, they have 154 people in ICU, of those 144 are unvaccinated; 86 are on ventilators, 80 are unvaccinated,” said Mayor Foster Senn. “To city staff and the people here, people care about you, your family and friends care about you, the City of Newberry cares about you and wants you to be healthy and safe.”
Senn added that Newberry City County wanted to put an incentive for full time staff members getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
“The primary reason to get the vaccine is for health reasons, but we want to put an incentive to help encourage folks to get vaccinated. Maybe one more reason to get the vaccine,” he said.
With that, Senn made a motion for full time City of Newberry employees getting the COVID-19 vaccination, and those already vaccinated, get an extra day of vacation and approximately $100, after taxes. According to the City of Newberry Human Resources Department, the gross amount will be $140.
The money for this will come from the COVID-19 relief funding the city will be receiving, per Senn. Councilmember Lemont Glasgow gave a second and council approved the motion without objection.
This incentive does not apply to councilmembers.