NEW YORK — More than 500 Department of Correction (DOC) officers are facing the possibility of losing their pay after failing to meet the city's vaccine mandate for municipal workers.

According to numbers City Hall released Wednesday, the department's overall vaccination compliance rate is currently at 77% — that's about 6,000 officers in a department that counts nearly 8,000 officers among its uniformed ranks.

“We’re grateful for every officer who has stepped up for the community and gotten the shot," DOC spokesperson Patrick Gallahue told NY1 in a statement. "Vaccination rates will continue to rise, as they have with every agency in the City, and we remain confident that our staffing plan will keep our jails safe while they do.”

Despite the administration's confidence, contingency measures have been put in place in order to deal with a potential staffing shortage. Mayor Bill de Blasio signed an executive order this week allowing the department to require 12-hour shifts from its officers.

All other city agencies have been subject to the mandate for at least a month now. The Department of Correction was the only agency to get an extended deadline to meet a requirement, given challenges the department was already facing due to an unofficial work stoppage among some officers.

De Blasio is hoping the Department of Correction follows a similar pattern followed by other uniformed workers where vaccine compliance significantly increased after workers were faced with the threat of losing their pay.

"Even if they're on leave without pay, saying, wait a minute, I need to get paid," de Blasio told reporters Wednesday during his a press briefing. "I expect those numbers to go up in a very substantial way in the days ahead."

In addition to the 570 officers at risk of losing their pay for failure to meet the mandate, a total of 708 uniformed staff have applied for medical or religious accommodations. While their applications are processed, officers are allowed to work as long as they're testing regularly.

Several hundred officers also took advantage of incentives provided by the city: by this week, 907 officers had received a $500 bonus for getting the jab.

The next couple of days will be crucial in determining if the city is prepared to handle potential staffing issues, which have proved dangerous to staff and detainees inside the jails in recent months.

Councilman Keith Powers, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan and chairs the City Council's Committee on Criminal Justice, says he believes the city should be considering securing outside help should staffing become a problem again.

"I think we know there is going to be less staff showing up at least immediately because of the vaccine mandate, and that adds on to an already understaffed agency that has struggled," Powers said.

For months now, the agency has been struggling to stabilize a crisis of staffing that led to dangerous conditions for detainees and officers alike for several weeks in September.

The city says the situation has improved, but as of last month, thousands of officers were still failing to report for duty. The city was unable to say how many officers who have been failing to show up for work will be placed on unpaid leave.

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