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New York City expands vaccine mandates for children, private sector

This article is more than 12 months old

NEW YORK : New York City expanded its array of Covid-19 mandates on Monday, setting vaccine requirements for children as young as five years old and for workers at all private companies as the highly transmissible Omicron variant pushes into more US states.

The most populous US city set a Dec 27 deadline for all 184,000 businesses within its limits to make their employees show proof they have been vaccinated, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

In addition, children five to 11 years old must get at least one dose by Dec 14, and those 12 and older need to be fully vaccinated by Dec 27 to enter restaurants and participate in extracurricular school activities.

"Vaccination is the way out of this pandemic, and these are bold, first-in-the-nation measures to encourage New Yorkers to keep themselves and their communities safe," Mr de Blasio, who leaves office next month, said in a statement.

His successor, Mr Eric Adams, will evaluate the mandate and other strategies to combat the pandemic when he takes office in January, his spokesman Evan Thies said.

The mandate means many young people, or their parents, will need to scramble to get a shot to keep eating out or participating in after-school activities. Only about 27 per cent of New Yorkers aged five to 12 have taken at least one dose, and just 15 per cent are fully vaccinated, according to the city's website.

Vaccination mandates are a divisive issue nationally, and views among adults about having to vaccinate children differed in New York on Monday.

Many companies, including several Wall Street banks headquartered in New York already require vaccines for anyone entering their offices. - REUTERS

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