Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference on Wednesday that health professionals in New York City would be forced to obtain COVID-19 vaccines or undergo weekly testing.
All staff at city-run hospitals and clinical personnel for the health department will be subject to the new restrictions, which will take effect on Aug. 2. In the coming weeks, the city intends to apply the new regulations to more health department employees. Employees will have to provide proof of immunization or a negative test result in order to work.
“Every single one of those employees has a choice,” de Blasio continued, emphasizing that the vaccine option was the better of the two. “It’s about keeping people safe and preventing the delta variation,” says the narrator.
According to the state health department, hospital personnel are vaccinated at a greater rate than the general population, however, the percentage of completely immunized New York City hospital workers (70 percent) is somewhat lower than the statewide average (74 percent).