NYC COVID vaccine mandate for private employers ends next week

Top On Tuesday, New York City health officials agreed to rescind the strictest-in-the-nation COVID vaccination requirement set by former Mayor Bill de Blasio in the dying days of his administration, the final approval required to discontinue the program the next week. Vaccination requirements for high-risk extracurricular activities in schools will also be eliminated.

Each vote received unanimity. The regulations will expire on November 1, per the statement made by Mayor Eric Adams in late September. At that time, private companies will have the choice of maintaining the rule, but it will no longer be mandated by the municipal health code.

But tens of thousands of municipal employees will still have to get vaccinated, even though many of them have complained about having to follow a rule that is no longer seen as important in the private sector.

Adams, who maintained the private-sector mandate in place despite opposition when he assumed office earlier this year, announced in late September that the private rule would expire on November 1. He urged, however, that the city’s more than 300,000 workers continue to set a good example and maintain municipal order. It is unclear when this may stop.

As a vaccine controversy engulfed the Nets’ Kyrie Irving, the Democrat repealed the professional player vaccination mandate in late March, sparking outrage from companies that claimed double standards.

Today, Mayor Adams dropped the private business vaccination requirement in the boroughs. Rana Novini reports.

It is unclear how many private-sector workers lost their jobs as a result of the requirement or if they are unable to regain them now that the obligation has expired. Adams said there was no end date for the municipal mandate, which resulted in the layoff of more than 1,500 city workers at the time of his September statement.

Representatives from the FDNY and NYPD unions were quick to call the decision “arbitrary” and “arbitrary.”

The newest COVID cases in New York come at a time when people are getting more worried about the spread of new COVID strains that are resistant to vaccines and infectious, some of which haven’t even been found in the United States yet.