Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the city will be “looking at” requiring city workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, after he announced that public hospital and other health workers are required to either obtain a coronavirus vaccine or receive a weekly test for the bug.
De Blasio — who said the health-care worker policy will go into effect Aug. 2 and carry a suspension without pay penalty if not followed — on Wednesday morning kept the door open to expanding COVID-19 vaccination mandates to other city workers to combat spread of the virus.
“They are talking about reaching other municipal workers, we’re going to be looking at that,” de Blasio said during a remote press briefing from City Hall, when asked about San Francisco’s rule that all city workers get jabbed or face being fired.
“For us, the number one thing was to get to the health care workers first, and get that going,” he added. “We’re going down the same kind of road and working it step by step.”
The mayor said vaguely that he will look at “a range of options” and “other possibilities” on vaccination-related policies for city workers, but isn’t yet ready to pull the trigger on mandatory vaccines for them.
“We’re definitely looking at other possibilities, but we’re not there yet,” the mayor said during his daily press briefing. “We’re going to look at a range of options going forward if we don’t see vaccination numbers continue to go up.”
The mayor in a pair of TV appearances framed the vaccine or weekly testing policy for city health-care workers as a “fair choice” that will cause more of New York City’s health-care workers to agree to receive a vaccine.
“We’re going to look at different options. I think this is the most obvious one, the people who are the most vulnerable are health care workers and who serve the most vulnerable people who go to the hospital or a clinic,” de Blasio told CNN’s John Avlon on “New Day.”
“I do think it makes sense to then go look at the other possibilities, and keep going up the ladder.”
“If, thankfully, people get vaccinated and [the] Delta variant is pushed back, that’s a good news story,” de Blasio said on MSNBC. “If people don’t get vaccinated and Delta grows, I think a lot of people will come to the conclusion, rightfully, that we might have to be more aggressive.”
“But what we’re trying to do today is say, let’s start with the most obvious piece of the equation — health care,” he added. “Let’s right there, go to work, and then from there we can take additional steps.”
Health officials have warned of an increase in cases since June as the Delta variant, first found in December in India, has emerged in New York City. But many New Yorkers remain unvaccinated, including about one-third of New York City hospital workers.
Despite the recent spread of the Delta variant, the mayor has repeatedly said an indoor mask mandate is not yet necessary.
“I don’t want to see people say, ‘Oh, we’re wearing masks so we don’t need to deal with vaccination,’” de Blasio said Tuesday at his daily press briefing.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
