New York City to require proof of vaccine for some indoor activities

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New York City will require proof of vaccination for a variety of indoor activities from dining to health clubs and concerts, Bill de Blasio, the city’s mayor, announced on Tuesday.

The city is believed to be the first in the US to introduce such restrictions as the highly infectious Delta variant causes a rise in Covid-19 infections.

“This will encourage a lot more vaccination — we’ve seen it already,” De Blasio said, unveiling what he called the “Key to NYC” pass.

The idea is to persuade New Yorkers that vaccination is essential to live a better life and enjoy the city’s offerings, the mayor said.

“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said. By contrast, those who are not vaccinated will increasingly be shut out of a range of activities.

Further details of the plan will be hammered out over the next few weeks, he added. It will be enforced from September 13.

Some well-known city businesses announced similar requirements earlier this week, notably restaurateur Danny Meyer and the Equinox fitness chain.

New York City’s business leaders had broadly been targeting September as a new milestone in the city’s recovery from the pandemic. Companies have been prodding employees to return to the office, public schools will reopen and Broadway shows — a huge tourist draw — are set to resume.

But those expectations have been shaken by a rise in new Covid infections as a result of the Delta variant. In June, cases dipped below 200 per day. The figure has since increased to more than 1,200, according to city data. Hospitalisations and Covid deaths still remain relatively low. About 45 per cent of city residents have yet to be fully vaccinated.

The new mandate comes after a series of moves by the city to increase vaccine take-up — from offering $100 debit cards to citizens as an inducement to requiring city workers to be vaccinated or undergo weekly Covid tests.

It mirrors a broader push by federal and local officials around the country to try to boost lagging vaccination rates through a combination of rules and incentives.

“We know and recognise that different communities and states are going to take steps to protect the people living in their states, and also incentivise — whether it is through carrots or sticks — more people getting vaccinated,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday when asked about New York City’s move.

“That is what is going to save lives and that is what is going to bring an end to the pandemic. This is certainly an example of that.”

Daily vaccinations in the US have hovered at about 550,000 a day over the past week, up from the lows they reached in July but down from a peak rate of more than 3.4m in mid-April, according to CDC data.

The US announced on Monday that 70 per cent of Americans have now received at least one jab.

New York City’s bars and restaurants have been devastated by the pandemic and the sometimes draconian restrictions on indoor dining and other activities that authorities have introduced to try to contain it.

Andrew Rigie, the director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, said that complying with the new mandate would be “a very difficult step”. But he added that it may be necessary to ensure the city does not reimpose restrictions “that would again absolutely devastate small businesses that have not yet recovered from the pandemic”.

John Winterman, co-owner of Francie, a Brooklyn brasserie that opened and earned a Michelin star in the midst of the pandemic, welcomed the mayor’s announcement.

“It’s not going to be an undue burden on us by any means,” he said, noting that Francie and other restaurants were already moving to require vaccinations.

“I was quite honestly tired of bearing the burden of people who weren’t vaccinated. So it’s time to shift the burden to them,” he said.