(6 Dec 2021) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4356355

From big Wall Street banks to corner grocery stores, all private employers in New York City will have to require their workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19, the mayor announced Monday in the most sweeping vaccine mandate of any state or big city in the U.S.
The Greater New York Chamber of Commerce, which includes some 30,000 businesses big and small, said it supports the tightened measures.
"This is for the health and public safety to keep the economy growing, to keep tourists feeling safe when they come here," Mark Jaffe, President of the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce said. "We don't want to be a headline - 'New York City is leads the nation in COVID' - we don't want to lead the nation in COVID rates, and this is an important step."
But other industry groups said the plan would add to the strain on businesses still struggling to recover from the pandemic and find enough employees.
De Blasio, a Democrat with just weeks left in office, said the mandate will take effect Dec. 27, with in-person workers needing to provide proof they have received at least one dose of the vaccine. And they will not be allowed to get out of the requirement by agreeing to regular COVID-19 testing instead.
The measure will apply to roughly 184,000 businesses not covered by previous vaccine mandates, ranging from multinational corporations to mom-and-pop businesses in the city of 8.8 million people, according to a spokesperson for the mayor. The city's private-sector workforce is 3.7 million.
De Blasio said the move is aimed at staving off a spike of infections amid holiday gatherings and as cold weather drives more people indoors, where the virus can spread more easily.
New York City is averaging just under 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day, up from about 820 a day at the start of November.
"We need to make sure that the smaller businesses at the lower end don't bear all the financial burden, and we have to give them some money for their signs, for their testing, for their incentives," Jaffe  said.
Vaccine rules across states and cities vary widely, with some states resisting any mandates and others requiring the shots for government employees or certain sectors that run a particularly high risk, such as health care workers.
But no state has announced a broad private-sector mandate like New York City's, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy.
President Joe Biden sought to impose a less far-reaching mandate nationally, requiring employees of businesses with 100 or more workers to either get vaccinated or undergo regular testing. But federal courts have blocked that plan for now ahead of the Jan. 4 deadline.
De Blasio said he expects his mandate to survive any legal challenges. Employees will be able to ask for religious or medical exemptions.
  
De Blasio said he will release more details next week about how the mandate will be enforced.
About 5.9 million adults in New York City have gotten at least a first dose, out of 7 million people age 18 and up. That translates to 84%. About 5.8 million New Yorkers of all ages are fully vaccinated.
Cases of the omicron variant have been reported in about one-third of the states, but scientists cannot say for certain yet whether it is more dangerous than previous versions.
U.S. health experts have strongly urged people to get their shots and a booster, saying they believe the vaccine will still offer protection against the new variant.

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