New York City Mayor-elect Eric Adams, a Democrat, revealed this week that he plans to keep all of outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio’s COVID-19 mandates in place, including a sweeping employer vaccine mandate.
The private sector vaccine mandate, which de Blasio, a Democrat, announced earlier this month, says that all employers “may not allow any unvaccinated workers to come to their workplace.”
Adams said that he will keep that mandate in place, but focus on “compliance” rather than “punishment.” Instead of handing out fines left and right to employers who don’t comply, Adams said he will launch a city unit to work with small businesses, as long as those businesses “engage with the city to help their workers get vaccinated.”
Here’s Mayor-elect Eric Adams winter COVID plan. Press conference just now beginning. pic.twitter.com/vOGnt0kWs0
— City Nolan (get your ?!!!) (@ndhapple) December 30, 2021
Adams is also keeping the city’s indoor mask mandate in place, as well as all school restrictions. His plan to combat COVID-19 even includes a note about improving the “quality of masks” worn by students, which could mean he plans to mandate that all students wear surgical N95 masks instead of cloth ones.
However, Adams said he would not mandate COVID-19 vaccines for students, saying schools are “the safest place for our children.”
“The governor will make the final outcome if we are going to mandate vaccines in schools,” he said.
After announcing the employer vaccine mandate on Dec. 6, de Blasio defended the policy as a necessary step to ensure the city never shuts down again.
“Adamantly I feel this: No more shutdowns. We’ve been through them,” he said at the time. “They were devastating. We can’t go through it again.”
