Covid vaccines mandatory for New York private sector workers
New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio has issued a sweeping mandate requiring all private sector workers to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
“We in New York City have decided to use a pre-emptive strike to really do something bold to stop the further growth of Covid and the dangers it’s causing to all of us,” said the Democrat mayor in comments to MSNBC.
“We’ve got Omicron as a new factor, we’ve got the colder weather which is going to really create new challenges with the Delta variant, we’ve got holiday gatherings,” said de Blasio, who is due to leave office in January. “Vaccine mandates are the one thing that breaks through.”
The mandate will cover 184,000 business and companies, extending a nationwide directive from Joe Biden for companies with over 100 employees to vaccinate all workers by 04 January. The mandate is received push back in court forcing the mandate to be halted.
All private sector workers will need to receive at least one dose of the vaccine by 27 December in order to continue working.
Children over the age of five will also soon need vaccine passports to enter restaurants, theatres, museums or arcades in New York City de Blasio said.
New York City already has a high rate of vaccination, with 77 per cent of residents having received at least one dose according to city data. According to de Blasio the rationale behind the new vaccination requirements is to avoid the shutdowns imposed in March 2020 when Covid-19 devastated New York city.
The US has recorded 131,000 new Covid-19 infections in the past 24 hours and has suffered over 778,000 deaths since the pandemic began according to WHO data.
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