Around 3,000 New York City teachers have asked for medical and religious exemptions from the city’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate, according to the city’s teachers union. The city requires all school staff to be vaccinated or exempted by midnight on Sept. 27. The union, United Federation of Teachers (UFT) said on Sept. 24 that 90-95 percent of teachers have received the vaccine. That would leave about 4,000-8,000 unvaccinated, including those who have asked for the exemption. The exemptions are largely medical, UFT President Michael Mulgrew told reporters during a Sept. 24 teleconference. He didn’t specify how many have been granted. Those rejected have an option to appeal, but Mulgrew said he didn’t know how many have done so. With a pending appeal, a teacher can’t participate in instruction, but gets exempted from the mandate, which requires those unvaccinated after the deadline to either leave their jobs with a severance package or …