Nearly 99% of Denver’s more than 10,000 employees complied with Mayor Michael Hancock’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate before Thursday’s deadline.

For those who haven’t, Friday marks the first day the city can send disciplinary letters — though workers who refuse to be vaccinated under any circumstances will be fired, city attorney’s office spokeswoman Jacqlin Davis said earlier this week.

The public health order covered not just every city employee — from the Denver Zoo to the Denver Police department — but also people working in settings the city deemed high-risk including private and public schools, nursing homes, homeless shelters and hospitals.

The city has not provided figures on how many people outside its employment umbrella have met the requirement. But as of noon Friday, 10,704 full-time city workers (or 98.7%) had either been vaccinated or approved for a medical or religious exemption, per the city dashboard. That’s a more than 35% increase in compliance over the last four weeks and despite a pair of legal challenges from police and construction associations.

“This is about saving lives and further protecting the public from this virus, and we’re grateful to the over 98% of city employees who came into compliance with the public health order,” Hancock said in a news release Friday. “Our city employees have always put service to their community first, and they have demonstrated that once again by getting vaccinated.”

As of Friday, 652 city employees had been granted exemptions. Another 71 workers who applied for exemptions were denied and 14 applications are still being considered.

Exempted employees will be required to wear masks, stay a safe distance from coworkers and be tested for the virus every five days, according to a news release. The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment will enforce those and other vaccine requirements at city facilities and in high-risk workplaces covered by the mandate, 

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero said in a statement that 87% of the district’s employees were fully vaccinated by the mayor’s deadline and another 3% had received exemptions.

The remaining 10% who are not yet in compliance with the city order continue to work for the district and are subject to “stronger masking requirements and required weekly COVID testing,” Marrero wrote. The district has 10,177 full-time employees including 4,780 classroom teachers working with its more than 90,000 kids, according to its website.

Aside from the people who refuse to be vaccinated and will be fired, people who have yet to comply but still could will face 10-day suspensions without pay. If they have not started the vaccination process after those 10 days, they too will be fired, Davis said.

It is not clear how many disciplinary letters went out Friday. The city’s main human resources department and agencies themselves will handle those, she added.

Those who are in the process of being vaccinated but not fully vaccinated (achieved two weeks after a final dose is administered, by public health guidelines) will face no discipline.