A man exits a vaccination bus at a mobile vaccination clinic in Midtown Manhattan, December 6, 2021. New York City is ending its mandate of COVID-19 vaccinations for municipal employees, it announced -Mayor Eric Adams Monday, February 6, 2023. The vaccine mandate, which led to the firing of hundreds of city workers who refused to get the shots, will end on Friday , Adams said in a news release.
Mary Altaffer/AP
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Mary Altaffer/AP
A man exits a vaccination bus at a mobile vaccination clinic in Midtown Manhattan, December 6, 2021. New York City is ending its mandate of COVID-19 vaccinations for municipal employees, it announced -Mayor Eric Adams Monday, February 6, 2023. The vaccine mandate, which led to the firing of hundreds of city workers who refused to get the shots, will end on Friday , Adams said in a news release.
Mary Altaffer/AP
New York City will no longer require municipal employees to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, about a year and a half after the policy was implemented.
In a statement, Said Mayor Eric Adams Monday “this is the right moment for the decision” because currently, more than 96% of city employees are vaccinated, and 80% of all New Yorkers have received at least two doses of the vaccine.
The change takes effect Friday, following the next Board of Health meeting the day before, and also applies to employees of the city’s Department of Education. Those visiting Department of Education schools will no longer have to provide proof of at least one dose of the vaccine.
The vaccine mandate was established in July 2021, giving city employees until the end of September of that year to get vaccinated, or have to wear a mask indoors and get tested for COVID-19 every week.
About 1,780 employees were fired for not submitting proof of vaccination. Those employees will not be reinstated, but may reapply to their old city departments, according to the announcement.
Last October 24, a New York state judge ruled that the city’s vaccine mandate for public employees was arbitrary and capricious, and therefore in violation of the state constitution. He ordered the city to reinstate city employees who had been fired because of the mandate with back pay, but the city filed an appeal.
But also that day, Adams removed the mandate for private sector employees. Last March, the city ended its vaccine mandate for athletes and theater artists.
“It is clear that these mandates saved lives and were absolutely necessary to reach the moment. We are grateful that we can now, as soon as we leave the emergency phase of the pandemic, modify more of the rules that have brought us up to this point point,” said Dr. Ashwin Vasan, New York City’s Department of Health and mental hygiene commissioner.
