De Blasio to expand COVID vaccine-or-test mandate to all city workers
Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday he is expanding the city’s vaccination-or-test mandate to cover the entire city workforce — all 300,000-plus municipal employees, including the Department of Education and the NYPD.
The move comes after Hizzoner repeatedly hinted over the last week that he was considering expanding the jabs requirement as concerns mount over the hyper-contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
“We all know the Delta variant has thrown us a curveball,” de Blasio told reporters during his Monday briefing as he rolled out the new rules. “This is about our recovery, this is what we need to do to bring back New York City, this is about keeping people safe.”
Last week, de Blasio ordered employees of the city’s sprawling public hospital system and Health Department’s community clinics to get their shots by Aug. 2 or begin submitting to weekly COVID-19 testing.
City Hall’s expanded mandate will be rolled out in two phases to eventually cover all city employees — some 314,000 workers — and some city contractors.
Those who work in publicly-run residential or congregate care facilities — like nursing homes — will be required to present proof of vaccination by August 16 or submit to weekly testing.
Employees at all other city agencies — from the Buildings Department to the NYPD to the DOE — will have until September 13, which is the first day of school.
Additionally, de Blasio announced that it will begin requiring unvaccinated municipal employees to wear a mask indoors at all times and that employees who do not comply would be sent home and not paid for the day.
“We need stronger medicine to deal with Delta which is why were taking these steps today,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi.
The city’s public hospitals chief, Dr. Mitch Katz, also appeared at de Blasio’s press conference at Bronx Borough Hall.
“It’s our duty to be sure that we are not ourselves spreading the virus,” the Health and Hospitals boss told reporters.
Two powerful municipal labor unions put out dueling statements in the aftermath of de Blasio’s announcements.
“Vaccination and testing have helped keep schools among the safest places in the city,” said a spokeswoman for the United Federation of Teachers, which represents public teachers across the Big Apple’s massive school system. “This approach puts the emphasis on vaccination but still allows for personal choice and provides additional safeguards through regular testing.”
However, the head of District 37 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, argued that the new mandate should be subject to collective bargaining with City Hall.
“If City Hall intends to test our members weekly, they must first meet us at the table to bargain,” said DC 37 executive director Henry Garrido. “While we encourage everyone to get vaccinated and support measures to ensure our members’ health and wellbeing, weekly testing is clearly subject to mandatory bargaining.”
“New York City is a union town and that cannot be ignored,” he added.
De Blasio also again encouraged private employers to establish their own policies to encourage workers to get their shots before returning to offices en masse.
The policy is an about-face for Hizzoner, who insisted for weeks that the city could hit its vaccination goals by enticing reticent New Yorkers to get their shots through contests with prizes like tickets to basketball playoff games, MetroCards and weekend “staycations” at local hotels.
The dramatic shift comes as other parts of the country battle severe outbreaks of the new and highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has also begun to push case numbers up locally.
However, officials have said the Big Apple’s jab campaign — 70.5 percent of adult New Yorkers have at least one shot — means the most devastating outbreaks will be largely confined to the unvaccinated.
The city’s coronavirus testing rate has once again pushed past 2 percent and hit 2.35 percent on Monday — more than doubling the sub-1 percent readings from early July, according to preliminary tallies posted by the city Health Department on Sunday. Gotham’s hospitalization rate has also begun ticking up again, the DOH stats show.
However, the outbreaks across the five boroughs remained far more contained than they are in less vaccinated parts of the country, particularly in Southern states like Florida, Louisiana and Texas.
“We’ve tried everything else and we got results, but we need more” people to get vaccinated, de Blasio later reiterated during his Friday appearance on WNYC’s “The Brian Lehrer Show.”
He continued: “If people want freedom, if people want jobs, if people want to be able to live again, we have got to get more people vaccinated.”