Only a small percentage of active-duty Navy sailors remain unvaccinated from the coronavirus, with the deadline just over a week away.
As of Wednesday, 99.7% of active-duty sailors have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to data from the Navy. To date, 96.7% are fully vaccinated.
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The number of unvaccinated active-duty sailors currently hovers slightly above 1,000, though that’s out of just under 350,000.
The Navy’s vaccination deadline is Nov. 28, though it takes two weeks from the day of the final shot to be considered inoculated, meaning they would have needed to receive it by last Sunday on Nov. 14.
Those who don’t want to get the vaccine can apply for a religious or medical exemption. However, failure to get the vaccine without an approved exemption would result in discharge under general conditions. Such a discharge could result in the loss of some Veteran Affairs benefits.
The Navy has approved six permanent medical exemptions but has not signed off on any religious waiver requests.
If a sailor’s exemption request is denied, they will have five days to receive their first dose or get discharged, the Navy announced earlier this week.
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Last week, a group of nearly three dozen Navy sailors, most of whom are Navy SEALs, filed a lawsuit seeking to get their religious exemption requests approved. The SEALs and sailors involved in the suit are either Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, or Protestant and said getting the vaccine would violate their religious beliefs.
When asked by the Washington Examiner about whether there had been conversations about mandating a booster shot, a spokesperson for the Navy said sailors “should follow CDC and FDA recommendations on whether they should get a booster shot or not.”
