Gov. Ned Lamont announced Thursday he is moving forward with his plan to place thousands of state workers across the state on unpaid leave if they don't provide proof of vaccination or comply with weekly testing.

He officially ordered executive branch department officials to prepare to do without those employees as early as Tuesday. Lamont also says he has alerted the National Guard that its members may be used to fill in the gaps in some of those jobs, but did not specify which areas.

As of Thursday afternoon, 63% of employees say they are fully vaccinated and another 12% have started weekly testing.

There is still 8,000 workers still in "non-compliance status," but that number is down about 2,000 over the past two days.