Workers at Jewish Senior Services in Bridgeport are required to get the COVID-19 vaccine by May, or they may lose their job.

About 400 staff members at Jewish Senior Services in Bridgeport rolled up their sleeves to get their first dose of the vaccine in December. Over a dozen of residents at the facility lost their lives to COVID-19 throughout the year.

Andrew Banoff, the president and CEO, says this is about protecting everyone as the virus got into their facility primarily through caregivers. "We can't let staff members be the reason that anybody else gets sick," he says. Banoff typed a letter to about 150 employees who did not receive the vaccine, saying effective May 1, all direct and indirect caregiver staff will be required to have the COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment, with medical exceptions listed by the CDC. Jewish Senior Services say they understand if one of their employees decides not to get the vaccine because that's their choice, but decision could impact their employment. "Maybe it's the right decision to not be vaccinated, but then it's also the right decision for them to work somewhere else," Banoff says. Although the federal government does not require people to get the vaccine, according to the CDC, a state or local government or employer may require, or mandate workers be vaccinated as a matter of state or other law. Banoff  says, "The last thing on earth we ever want to do is terminate anyone ever...whether for this reason or any other reason." Facility resident Elaine Mileski, 87, says employees should have the right to decide if they get the vaccine. "I think it should be their choice, but I would feel better if they were," she says. Banoff is just hoping the employees on the fence about getting it will think of the residents they are caring for. "We've all learned in the last year how fragile life is and that we need to do everything we can to protect it," he says.

Almost all the residents are vaccinated. Jewish Senior Services is working with St. Vincent's Medical Center to get more employees vaccinated at a clinic during the weeks of March 8 and 15.