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There was a high level of physical absenteeism among staff members of the St. Mary Municipal Corporation for Thursday's monthly meeting following the vaccine mandate which took effect almost two weeks ago.
The mandate, announced during last month's meeting of the corporation, stated that proof of vaccination would be required before entry to the building.
The mandate was implemented on November 1 and extends to visitors.
Several staff members opted to join Thursday's meeting virtually.
Richard Creary, Chairman of the St. Mary Municipal Corporation, expressed disappointment at the low physical turnout.
"I take this to mean that a number of our staff members, and our senior staff members, are not vaccinated," he said, noting that a survey is being done to ascertain the number of staff who have received the jab.
"I still can't understand what some of us are waiting on, so I would hope as time goes by, we will see more and more persons taking the vaccine and being able to attend our meetings face-to-face."
Mr. Creary warned unvaccinated staff members and those joining virtually that they were expected to be available during meetings upon request.
"When we call upon you for information, please be available. And I don't mean available to the point where we have to wait until somebody tell you it’s your time and you join, because a lot of the times we see persons’ names up there but when we try to reach out, the person is only present in name," he complained.
It's understood that a representative of the media and a member of a government agency were turned away from the physical location as they could not show proof of vaccination.
All councillors in St. Mary have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The other staff members of the municipal corporation include members of different state entities, such as the fire brigade, police force, public health department and others who present at monthly meetings.
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