New York City private sector employees will undergo mandatory vaccinations from December 27, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday (6). The measure is intended to contain the omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The Democrat also said that the requirement to provide proof of vaccination to access closed spaces, such as restaurants and theaters, will be extended to children aged 5 to 11 from the next day. vaccine, not just one, as it is currently from December 27th.
“The omicron is here and it looks like it’s very transmissible,” the New York mayor said in an interview. “The timing will be worse with the winter months [no Hemisfério Norte].”
New York, considered the epicenter of the pandemic in 2020, had made official the end of restrictions imposed to combat the health crisis in July this year, but had to back down. The number of Covid cases in the city has grown rapidly in recent weeks, and daily new case records have increased 75% since November 1st.
The city had already implemented mandatory vaccinations for public sector employees — nearly 90% of adults are on at least one dose of the immunizing agent against Covid. Only about 27% of New Yorkers ages 5 to 12 have received at least one dose and only 15% are fully immunized. So young people, or their parents, will have to rush to get the shot if they want to keep going to restaurants or participating in extracurricular activities.
The measure announced on Monday, said the mayor, should have an impact on more than 184,000 companies. Many companies, including several based on Wall Street such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, already require those who frequent their offices to be vaccinated.
De Blasio’s successor, Eric Adams, will evaluate the demand and other strategies to fight the pandemic once he takes office in January, according to his spokesman.
Attorney Anne Dana believes the city-wide requirement is more likely to be enforced than the mandatory mandate set by President Joe Biden, as a similar rule for restaurants, gyms and other private sector employees managed to survive legal challenge.
A national measure demanding vaccination in companies with more than 100 employees, initiated by the Biden government, was suspended last month after a court decision. The Democratic administration filed an appeal and is awaiting a decision to reinstate the requirement.
Covid-19 is accelerating again in the US, particularly in the northern states, as cold weather in the northern hemisphere pushes social events indoors. Last week, the country had an average of 120,000 new infections daily, an increase of 64% compared to the previous week, according to a survey by the Reuters news agency. Deaths, which lag behind the cases, averaged 1,300 a day, 500 more than the week before.
Delta is still the predominant variant in the US, but omicron has already been identified in 18 of the 50 US states.​
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