About 58% of DeKalb County employees have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The figure — which is higher than the larger county- and statewide vaccination rates — was announced Tuesday morning, a little over a month after DeKalb officials agreed to offer cash incentives to employees who get shots.
“It makes a difference, it truly does,” county Commissioner Lorraine Cochran-Johnson said. “The incentives make a difference.”
DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond first proposed the incentive, which offers $300 to employees who get COVID vaccines and another $200 if they receive a flu shot, in mid-November. The county commission approved funding for the initiative about a week later.
Officials said that, as of Dec. 17, about 3,645 of the county’s roughly 6,300 employees had submitted documentation showing they were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. (Booster shots were not required for that distinction.)
About 2,141 of those employees had also received a flu shot.
As of Dec. 1, the county had disbursed just under $1.5 million in incentives to employees. The money distributed for COVID vaccines comes from federal stimulus funds; the money for flu vaccines is allocated from the county operating budget.
The county plans to allow employees to submit proof of vaccination through Jan. 31. Thurmond said he hopes the employee vaccination rate will the exceed the national rate — which currently sits just over 61% — by then.
“We’re going to be very focused and intentional on protecting our workforce,” the CEO said.
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