$250 and 2 paid day off: Durham joins incentives push to get city workers vaccinated

The city of Durham has joined Durham County, Raleigh, and other local governments in the Triangle offering their employees cash and time off to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

City employees who can verify that they are fully vaccinated will now be eligible for a $250 one-time bonus and receive two paid days off between now and Oct. 10.

Employee who have not verified that they are fully vaccinated by Oct. 10 will be subject to mandatory routine COVID-19 testing beginning Oct. 18.

The city has about 2,400 employees, according to its website.

Delta variant fueling county’s surge

Durham County has had 29,050 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 237 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020, according to the Durham County dashboard.

There were 79 newly confirmed cases reported in the county Sunday, nearly two and a half times the number of new daily cases reported one month ago, according to the dashboard.

Meanwhile, the county’s positivity rate, the percentage of COVID-19 tests coming back positive, continues to climb.

It was 8.1% the week of Aug. 8, out of nearly 1,000 tests given. That was the highest it has been since the week of Jan. 24, when it was 8.2%.

State health officials have consistently said they want to see a statewide positivity rate of 5% or less.

Health officials say nearly all the new cases in the current surge are caused by the highly infectious delta variant and are among unvaccinated people.

This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 9:31 AM.