Outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he is considering mandating COVID booster shots for restaurants and concert venues as the Omicron variant has spread to a variety of countries across the globe after emerging last month.
After officials confirmed that five people in New York State have tested positive for the Omicron variant, both de Blasio and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said they would consider tightening vaccine mandates to allow entry to certain venues.
'With all of our approaches to COVID, we're going to update them because we're dealing with some new challenges,' de Blasio said on Friday. 'We're going to keep updating policies regularly to meet this challenge.'
The mysterious origin of the heavily mutated strain of Covid has puzzled experts since South African scientists alerted the world to is existence last week.
De Blasio said he is considering mandates that would require people looking to eat indoors or attend concerts to have two shots of the vaccine and the booster
Governor Hochul said she was also open to new mandates but wanted to wait until more was known about Omicron
De Blasio said he is considering mandates that would require people looking to eat indoors or attend concerts to have two shots of the vaccine and the booster
Omicron has 32 mutations on its spike proteins alone, nearly five times more than Delta, and there are concerns its highly divergent nature could make it it both more transmissible and that vaccines will be less effective at preventing infection.
Six more US states confirmed infections of the variant yesterday but the Delta strain likely remains a greater threat as winter sets in and Americans gather for the holidays, experts said.
New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Utah each reported their first cases of the Omicron variant on Friday.
Missouri was awaiting CDC confirmation of a case involving a St. Louis resident who had recently traveled within the United States.
De Blasio, whose final day as mayor is New Years Day, said he is even considering mandates that would require people looking to eat indoors or attend concerts to provide proof of receiving a COVID booster shot, in addition to already receiving two doses of the vaccine, the New York Daily News reported.
The city currently requires proof of one shot. currently the city requires providing proof of one shot.
'That will be looked at along with a series of other actions because it's really dynamic right now,' de Blasio said.
Currently, 81 percent of New York City adults are fully vaccinated, while 89 percent of New Yorkers have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to city data.
While the Omicron variant was a priority, de Blasio said he
