Many of Chattanooga’s biggest employers are banding together in a new Healthy Chattanooga Coalition to help boost vaccination levels in the region up to at least 60% by December.
A coalition of 26 major employers announced Tuesday they will encourage, incentivize and, in some instances, mandate employees to be vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus to help vaccinate more people to help reverse the recent rise in infections that recently made Tennessee the No. 1 state for COVID-19 infections.
Despite recent increases in the number of persons being vaccinated each day, the Tennessee Department of Health reports that only 47.4% of Hamilton County’s population is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus more than seven months after vaccines first became available. Chattanooga continues to lag the nation in the share of persons who are vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus.
“We must get to a higher vaccination level and we’re really excited about what we can do in this community to achieve that,” said Mary Lambert, the newly appointed director of community health for the city of Chattanooga.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly thanked the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce for organizing the coalition and “stepping up to help keep our community safe.