By: Hellen Zaboulani
Mayor Bill de Blasio took a stand against New York City employees who are not vaccinated.
As reported by the NY Post, on Monday the mayor announced a new indoors mask mandate for all unvaccinated NYC workers. He took it one step further, promising to “remove” employees who don’t comply with the new rule, and threatened to suspend them without pay. “If you are unvaccinated and you are a city employee, beginning on Monday, you must either wear a mask indoors at your worksite at all times,” de Blasio said at his daily remote press briefing Monday, “or if you prefer not to, you must immediately go get vaccinated.”
The new rule kicks into effect as of next Monday, Aug. 2, and requires city workers who do not wear masks to provide “documented proof” of having receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, the mayor said. “Only with documented proof of vaccination does one have the option to forgo a face covering,” de Blasio said. “We will not tolerate any decision to do otherwise,” de Blasio said. “If someone is not wearing their mask, they will be removed from the workplace.”
Any city employee who refuses to wear a mask or show proof of inoculation will not receive their paychecks for days which they were not allowed in their office or other work setting, confirmed Renee Campion, the city’s labor relations commissioner. “If employees refuse to comply, they just cannot be at work, and in fact, they will not be paid,” she said at the press briefing. As per the Post, though over 70 percent of New Yorkers have received at least one dose of a vaccine, the city’s public workers – including police, firefighters and Department of Corrections workers- have a significantly lower rate of inoculation.
“It’s quite clear the Delta variant has changed the game,” the mayor added, explaining the new law. The city’s health commissioner said the added caution is necessary to control spread of the delta variant of COVID-19. “We need stronger medicine to deal with Delta, which is why we’re taking these steps today,” said Dr. Dave Chokshi.
Last Wednesday, Mayor de Blasio had announced that the city is mandating workers at public hospitals and health clinic systems to either be vaccinated against COVID-19 or agree to be tested weekly for COVID-19, as Delta has led to new worries. “It’s our duty to be sure that we are not ourselves spreading the virus,” said Dr. Mitch Katz, head of NYC Health + Hospitals.
AP reported that Covid vaccinations ticked up over the weekend, with about 657,000 vaccines reported administered Saturday and nearly 780,000 on Sunday, according to CDC data. The 7-day rolling average on Sunday was about 583,000 vaccinations a day, up from about 525,000 a week prior.
Public health experts on Monday said the uptick in vaccinations is encouraging but warned that it’s far too early to say if millions of unvaccinated people are finally overcoming their reticence.
