New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has tightened COVID-19 regulations in response to the Omicron COVID-19 variation. He describes it as a “pre-emptive strike” against the virus.
Monday’s announcement by the mayor was that he will soon institute a vaccination mandate for all employees of the private sector in the city. Children aged 5-11 years old must show proof they have been immunized in order to participate in indoor dining, exercise or entertainment.
New Yorkers 12 years and over do not have to present proof of vaccination.
De Blasio announced that the new orders will take effect on December 27th. A formal announcement with further information is anticipated for Monday.
Bill de Blasio is the mayor of New York City. He announced on Monday morning that he will shortly implement COVID-19 mandates for all employers within the private sector in New York City.
‘We in New York City have decided to use a pre-emptive strike to really do something bold to stop the further growth of Covid and the dangers it’s causing to all of us,’ de Blasio told MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
He did not provide details as to how he would apply these mandates to private business.
He stated that details would be released by the city’s health commissioner later in the day.
New York City will be the first to adopt these mandates when the plan is in place.
All adults over the age of 12 must present proof of vaccines in order to be allowed to enter indoor spaces or to participate in indoor activities.
This city already has one of the most stringent Covid mandates in America.
De Blasio indicated that he was making the move in hopes of some combination of factors causing another Covid spike in the near future.
‘We’ve got Omicron as a new factor, we’ve got the colder weather which is really gonna create additional challenges with the delta variant, we’ve got holiday gatherings,’ he said.
When data were last updated November 30, the city had nearly 1,600 Covid cases per day, a 25 percent increase over the 1,200 daily average two weeks prior.
New York’s colder months were also unkind during the pandemic.
New York City did not hear the Covid surges of summer 2020 and 2021 that ravaged much of the United States in 2020, 2021.
In early 2020, however, the pandemic was devastating. There were over 8,000 cases of the virus per day, and the city was then caught unawares.
Covid again struck last winter. During another huge surge, new daily cases rose to more than 6,000.
The trend in cases is already upward, with a new variant of concern, so officials fear that the winter ahead could repeat last winter.
Omicron’s variant was initially discovered late November by South African officials of health. Since then, sequences have been performed around the world.
New York City, like the original wave of Omicron virus has emerged already as an Omicron hotspot.
On Monday, seven Omicron cases had been found in the city. These cases account for most of the eight in the state and are higher than the totals anywhere in America.
The Minnesota case was found in an individual who recently visited New York City as part of a convention.
There have been 34 Omicron cases sequenced across 17 U.S. States.
Although the exact nature of the variant is unknown, health officials believe it to be very contagious. It may also have the potential to bypass vaccine protection.
South Africa has seen an increase in daily new cases from 300 to 10,000 each day since the first discovery of this variant.
Officials are reporting positive news that Omicron cases tend to be milder than other strains of the virus.
However, deaths and hospitalizations tend to be a low number compared with cases. Officials still remain cautious about declaring Omicron an imminent threat.
De Blasio will first affect children under five years old with his indoor dining directive.
This story is breaking and will continue to be updated