People dining indoors, working out at a gym or attending an indoor entertainment venue will now be required to show proof of vaccination, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Tuesday.
The new mandate, which is the first of its kind in the nation, takes effect on Aug. 16. Enforcement will begin on Sept. 13. The timing will align with enforcement of the vaccination or test mandate for city workers.
This vaccine requirement will apply to both staff and customers and is being called the "Key to NYC Pass."
“When you hear those words, I want you to imagine the notion that because someone’s vaccinated, they can do all the amazing things that are available in this city,” de Blasio said at a news conference.
People will be able to show proof of their vaccination through a vaccination card, the state’s Excelsior pass or the city’s new digital app.
The new mandate will be issued via mayoral executive order and a health commissioner’s order. The city will work with businesses to educate them on the new order and will conduct outreach in the weeks leading up to the Sept. 13 enforcement start date, according to the mayor.
The NYC Hospitality Alliance, a group that represents restaurants and bars, welcomed the new mandate after expressing some skepticism last week.
“Mandating vaccine requirements for restaurant and bar employees and customers to work and dine indoors is a very difficult step, but ultimately may prove an essential move, to protecting public health and ensuring that New York City does not revert to restrictions and shut down orders that would again absolutely devastate small businesses that have not yet recovered from the pandemic,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the NYC Hospitality Alliance, in a statement. “We know that a mandated vaccine requirement will pose economic and operational challenges to restaurants, particularly in communities with lower vaccination rates and hesitancy, however it will also alleviate the burden that restaurants and bars face when implementing this policy voluntarily.”
Enforcement will involve multiple agencies, including the Health Department, according to officials.
“In the same way that we take precautions to protect food safety and other health and hygiene standards, that's what we will be aiming for with respect to enforcement of the ‘Key to NYC,’" said Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi.
State Senator James Sanders Jr. commended the move during the briefing. He represents Southeast Queens, an area hit hard by COVID-19 and currently exhibiting one of the highest rates of unvaccinated people in the city.
“There’s a madness afoot here and only the government can make a difference here,” said Sanders Jr. “If we do not take a strong stand and say—you have the right to your body but you do not have the right to kill other people here.”
The mayor did receive some pushback on the announcement.
Republican City Councilman Joseph Borelli, who represents the South Shore of Staten Island, said in a statement that the mandate "is a another blow to industries and small businesses which were already hanging on by a thread as they work to return to a sense of normalcy and segregates people who have chosen of their own volition to not take the vaccine for medical reasons or otherwise, especially people of color and other minority groups.”
The mayor previously hinted at the new guidance when he suggested a reality where the vaccinated live freely in the city and the unvaccinated miss out.
“What’s going to happen, bluntly, is that folks who are vaccinated are going to be able to experience all the things that they love in the life of this city and this country,” the mayor said during a CNN interview on Friday. "And folks who are not vaccinated are going to find that too many things that they want to do, they can’t do, unless they are vaccinated."