NYC ends COVID vaccine mandate for private-sector workers
COVID-19 vaccine mandate will be optional starting Nov. 1
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New York City will end its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for workers in the private sector, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.
Instead, Adams strongly urged businesses to put their own vaccine policies in place.
The change will take effect beginning on Nov. 1.
In addition, effective immediately, vaccination is optional for students participating in sports and extracurricular activities.
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New York City Mayor elect Eric Adams speaks to supporters Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II / AP Newsroom)
"With so many tools now more easily accessible to keep New Yorkers safe from COVID-19, the additional flexibility we are announcing for private employers, students and parents puts the choice back into each of their hands," Adams said in a statement launching a citywide bivalent booster campaign.
Former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio implemented the then-first-in-the-nation mandate for private-sector workers in December 2021. The mandate applied to some 184,000 businesses.
At the same time, he announced that children ages 5-11 would be required to get vaccinated to participate in high-risk extracurricular activities like band, orchestra and dance.
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A nurse at a Walgreens pharmacy near Florida International University's Tamiami campus on 107th Avenue in Miami-Dade shows a patient the newly formulated Moderna bivalent vaccine on Sept. 7, 2022. ( Howard Cohen/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Under Adams' leadership, vaccine requirements have already been lifted for indoor dining and entertainment.
Earlier this month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that she would begin to remove COVID-related restrictions, lifting a mask mandate on public transit.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul receives an omicron bivalent booster shot during a press conference update on the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in New York, Sept. 7, 2022. (Reuters/David 'Dee' Delgado) (Reuters/David 'Dee' Delgado / Reuters Photos)
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Hochul said that the state is in a "far different place" than before during the ongoing pandemic and that she was "optimistic."