NEW YORK — All New Yorkers who work in the city’s private sector will have to be vaccinated against Covid-19 under a new measure Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday — a “first-in-the-nation” mandate that would take effect four days before he leaves office.
De Blasio said the requirement, set to kick in on Dec. 27, is intended as a “preemptive strike” against the threat posed by the new Omicron variant. But he did not say how the city would enforce the rules.
“Vaccination works, and vaccine mandates work,” de Blasio said at a press conference. “We are taking aggressive action today. We are not going back to what happened in 2020. We cannot allow that to happen.”
The city will also require all children between the ages of 5 and 11 — who have a 19 percent vaccination rate — to show proof of at least one shot before entering restaurants, theaters and gyms starting on Dec. 14, de Blasio announced.
For adults and children 12 and older, who already are required to show proof of one dose for indoor activities, the requirement will increase to full vaccination. The tougher requirement takes effect Dec. 27.
The announcement comes as de Blasio looks for ways to boost his dismal approval ratings ahead of a likely gubernatorial run. Business leaders were quick to criticize the plan. “It’s pure politics,” said Kathryn Wylde, head of the Partnership for New York City.
De Blasio said he shared his plans with his soon-to-be successor, Eric Adams, last week and spoke to Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday morning. In a statement, Adams adviser Evan Thies said: “The mayor-elect will evaluate this mandate and other COVID strategies when he is in office and make determinations based on science, efficacy and the advice of health professionals."
During the last weeks of his campaign, Adams did not speak out in support of penalties attached to de Blasio’s vaccine mandate for municipal workers.
The mandate will apply to about 184,000 businesses — every private firm with more than one employee. It will apply to all in-person workers, but not to those who work remotely.
The administration plans to announce more detailed rules on Dec. 15, de Blasio said. Businesses can expect similar financial sanctions to those in place for restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues that do not comply with the city’s existing indoor vaccine mandate: Two warnings before monetary fines, according to the mayor’s press secretary Danielle Filson.
The mandate is being imposed through a commissioner’s order from city Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi. The mayor and the city’s top lawyer said they were confident it would withstand any legal challenge.
“The health commissioner has an obligation and a responsibility to protect the public health. Here, he is issuing an order that is intended to do just that in a public health emergency,” said Corporation Counsel Georgia Pestana, adding that it would hold up legally because it is applied across the board rather than singling out any industry.
The city has already mandated the vaccine for its own workforce, some 380,000 people.
Several cases of the Omicron variant have been identified in the city, as infection numbers were already rising, up to 1,879 new virus cases reported on Monday.
“We know it’s here. We know it’s going to spread. It appears to be, at this moment, very transmissible,” de Blasio said. “We’ve been to this movie before ... These are major threats looming, and we see it with the numbers rising.”
He said the new vaccine mandates would help head off the need for shutdowns or other restrictions, which some countries in Europe have imposed. “We cannot let those restrictions come back. We cannot have shutdowns here in New York City,” de Blasio said.
Business leaders complained they were blindsided by the announcement.
“It came out of nowhere. No consultation,” Wylde told POLITICO. “It sows more confusion and uncertainty among businesses that are struggling to restore confidence and get people back to work.”
She said she believes the 11th hour move is motivated by the mayor’s expected run for governor, since “the vaccination mandates poll well with Democratic primary voters.”
Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce President Randy Peers said the requirement will exacerbate already severe labor shortages.
“The mayor's private business mandates mean more pain for the City’s economy,” he said. “While virtually unenforceable — there are 62,000 small businesses in Brooklyn alone — it sets up problematic confrontations between employers and staff, which could result in layoffs around the holidays that would be incredibly unfortunate.”
Andrew Rigie, head of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, called for the vaccine requirement for children at restaurants to be delayed until next year — noting that it could be a problem for holiday tourism, since young children are not authorized to get the vaccine in some countries outside the U.S.
“Public health and safety is paramount, but Mayor de Blasio’s announced expansions to the Key to NYC vaccine mandate pose additional challenges for an already beleaguered restaurant industry in need of tourism support and revenues this holiday season,” he said.
But de Blasio said many businesses welcome the move, since they were interested in imposing vaccine mandates on their employees but reluctant to act unilaterally. “A single, universal rule is actually better for everyone,” he said.
Nestor Lebron, the owner of the Barber Factory in the Bronx, agreed. “It makes a great difference for our customers and for us, knowing that we’re protected,” said Lebron, who has required his workers to get vaccinated and appeared at the mayor’s press briefing Monday.
Just under half of office-based employers have already imposed their own mandates, according to a survey by the Partnership.
Last week, the mayor also rankled Orthodox Jewish leaders by requiring employees at yeshivas and other religious schools be vaccinated.
Private sector employers will have options when dealing with workers who refuse to get vaccinated including firing them, putting them on unpaid leave or allowing them to work from home, officials said.
Religious and medical accommodations will be available.
The mandate will not apply to state employees or those working for state-controlled agencies like the MTA and the City University of New York — leaving them some of the only workers in the city who won’t be covered by a vaccine mandate by the end of the year. De Blasio has called on Hochul to impose an MTA vaccine mandate, but she has declined.
