New York City‘s controversial indoor vaccine mandate, which applies to children as young as five years old, may soon finally a thing of the past.
Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who took office at the start of the year, told reporters Wednesday that he ‘can’t wait’ to lift the mandate once he gets a go-ahead from state health leaders.
The controversial policy has been in place since last summer, and was strengthened at the end of former Mayor Bill de Blasio‘s term. It required all New Yorkers aged five or older to show proof of full vaccination before entering dining, fitness or entertainment venues.
Previously, it only required adults to show proof of one vaccine dose to enter those venues.
De Blasio’s order also required school children to have received at least one Covid jab to take part in some school extra-curricular activities.
The stricter measures went into effect on December 27, days before Adams took over. Since he entered office, pressure has been on the new mayor to repeal the bizarre move made at the end of his predecessors term.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (pictured) said Wednesday that he ‘can’t wait’ the lift the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate that applies to children as young as five years old
‘I can’t wait to get it done,’ Adams told reporters during a news conference in Brooklyn.
‘… Every morning I meet with my health professionals because I always say I’m going to follow the science.’
Adams has previously been opaque on how long the vaccine mandate would last, and this is the first time he has indicated that it could be soon.
The Big Apple was one of the hardest struck places in the world by the Omicron variant leading up to Christmas and into the new year.
Cases jumped more than ten fold in a matter of weeks, from around 3,000 per day to 40,000 per day in early January.
Daily infection figures began to plummet afterwards, though, dropping all the way back down to around 5,000 cases per day by the end of January.
A similar trend occurred in much of America, where massive population centers were struck hard and early by the highly infectious variant before seeing cases rapidly decline after peaking.
New York City has a very high vaccination rate already, with 86% of Residents having received at least one shot of the jab and 77 percent being fully vaccinated
Nearly every adult in New York City is jabbed, with the city reporting that 96% of adults have received at least one shot and 86% are fully vaccinated
In response to the surge in cases, many local leaders, like de Blasio, implemented or strengthened Covid-related mandates.
Those types of measures are starting to rollback around America, though, as cases are plummeting basically everywhere and health leaders are lifting mask and vaccine mandates.
Adams said that state health officials have given benchmarks that must be reached before they are comfortable enough to lift these measure, and he says he plans to abide by them.
He did not tell reporters what exact benchmarks he and health officials were using to gauge the safety level.
‘I look forward to the next weeks going through a real transformation where I don’t have to wonder what you look like [while wearing a mask],’ Adams said.
‘We’re moving in the right direction. We’re going to do it in a safe way.’
On Valentine’s day, New York Gov Kathy Hochul lifted the statewide mask mandate in place for all indoor businesses that do not have a vaccine mandate.
This means that only Adams is currently enforcing mandates on New York City’s 8.5 million residents.
According to official city data, 86 percent of New Yorkers have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine and 77 percent are fully vaccinated.
Nearly every single adult in America’s most populous city, 96 percent, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 86 percent are fully vaccinated.
