The City of Boston on Friday issued a correction for the number of employees placed on unpaid leave after they missed an October deadline for getting vaccinated or agreeing to undergo regular COVID-19 testing, saying only 23 employees were suspended instead of 812, as officials first reported.
When city officials provided the larger number on Oct. 12, it accurately reflected the number of employees from “public facing agencies” who were not in compliance with the requirement, but most were not placed on leave, the city said in a statement.
The new requirement was rolled out in three phases, with only a few departments required to meet the October deadline, according to the statement. On Oct. 12, about 325 workers whose primary language is not English were moved from phase one to phase three of the plan, giving them until November to comply, according to the statement.
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The same day, hundreds of employees uploaded vaccination cards or test results that satisfied the mandate, officials said.
The city held hearings for 48 workers the week of Oct. 12, and all but a dozen met the requirements before their hearing dates, officials said. Because some were placed on leave prior to their hearings, 23 city employees had some unpaid leave in October due to the requirement, according to the statement.
Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox.