Hardly coming as a surprise in a world where the unvaccinated are now treated as subhuman scum, moments ago New York City announced it will require residents to be fully vaccinated to access indoor dining, entertainment, and fitness – a stricter rule than the current requirement for people to have received at least one dose. And yes, the new rule also means that kids aged 5-11 will also be required to have at least one shot to enter restaurants, de Blasio said.
Source: The City
The new rule goes into effect on Dec. 27.
“Vaccine mandates are the one thing that really breaks through,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in an interview on MSNBC Monday. “Let’s lean into it even more.”
The mayor also called the mandates a “preemptive strike”, once again urging all New Yorkers to get the jab, which is particularly unpopular among minority populations like black New Yorkers.
“We in New York City have decided to use a preemptive 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 said. “So as of today, we’re going to announce a first-in-the-nation measure. Our health commissioner will announce a vaccine mandate for private sector employers across the board.”
But before making these declarations, de Blasio should probably check out Belgium, which is over a month into its new mask mandate, and with 87.4% of adults fully vaccinated, its cases just hit an all-time high.
Naturally, New York has seen a post-Thanksgiving rise in Covid-19 infections in addition to its first few cases of the omicron variant. The cases so far appear to be unrelated, according to governor Kathy Hochul, but officials have warned people to assume there is already community spread.
“We have to assume community spread at this point,” de Blasio said. “Omicron is here.”
Although if this were true, the city would probably have confirmed more than a small handful of omicron cases.
The city last week strengthened its recommendation for residents to wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status and announced additional vaccine mandates on childcare workers and private school employees.
Meanwhile, over the weekend, the NYT sounded the alarm that hospitals in upstate New York are getting “crushed” thanks to a recent surge in COVID cases. However, hospitals in other parts of the northeast have seen a much more modest uptick in patients. But upstate, hospital capacity has decreased by 10%. It’s one reason Gov. Kathy Hochul has temporarily suspended “elective” surgeries.
This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge.