The Blaz now wants full vaccination status for participating in society

  

NY Daily News

A day after announcing five people in New York State tested positive for COVID’s omicron variant, Mayor de Blasio said Friday he is considering tightening vaccine mandates when it comes to restaurants and concert venues.

Such a mandate could include a second shot of the COVID vaccine, as well as boosters shots.

“With all of our approaches to COVID, we’re going to update them because we’re dealing with some new challenges,” he said. “We’re going to keep updating policies regularly to meet this challenge.”

De Blasio was responding to a question from WNYC’s Brian Lehrer about whether the city would require people seeking to eat indoors or attend concerts to show that they’ve been fully vaccinated — as opposed to providing proof of just one shot, which is the current requirement.

“That will be looked at along with a series of other actions because it’s really dynamic right now,” de Blasio said.

The mayor also pointed out that it is not just omicron he’s concerned about, but the spread of COVID’s delta variant in the winter months as well.

De Blasio, who is contemplating a gubernatorial run next year after he is term-limited out of office as mayor, was speaking a day after appearing alongside Gov. Hochul at City Hall on Thursday to alert New Yorkers that the heavily mutated omicron variant had found its way to the Empire State.

This idiot wanting to do this in the last hours of his abominable reign as mayor confirms that it's his and Davey Chokshi's fault that he elongated the COVID era by letting the Delta variant spread with the initial mandate.

Municipal workers caught with wild vax cards

NY Post

COVID-19 vaccination fraud may be spreading faster than the deadly bug itself among New York City workers, The Post has learned.

At least two city agencies, the FDNY and Sanitation Department, are in the crosshairs of a probe into employees submitting phony proof of the COVID-19 vaccine — in some cases stealing blank vax cards — in order to comply with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s jab mandate, insiders said.

At the FDNY, the scheme appears to involve the theft of the blank cards from the agency’s Brooklyn headquarters and other facilities where the department was offering jabs, according to a source.

FDNY honchos were sufficiently concerned to warn employees in an Oct. 30 memo, a copy of which was seen by The Post, that falsifying or forging an “official vaccination card” for “the purpose of proving vaccination compliance” may be a felony.

Fire Department officials have called the leaders of at least one union, Local 2507 Uniformed EMTs and Paramedics, to let them know of an investigation into members who submitted forged vaccination cards, according to the source.

“There’s a lot of people in trouble,” said an FDNY insider.

FDNY employees would have access to vaccination cards because the agency’s Incident Management Team had been dispensing the shot to workers in the department and at various city agencies.

Some of the stolen blank cards may have been illegally sold, the insider said. “There were Venmo transactions involved.”

An EMS lieutenant may have been at the center of the scheme, according to a FDNY source.

An FDNY spokesman refused to comment. Oren Barzilay, the head of the EMS union, did not return requests for comment.

The alleged fraud is widespread among sanitation workers — where at least 50 were suspended — and possibly as many as 150 involved — for providing fake vax verification, which they allegedly obtained through people affiliated with CVS drug stores on Staten Island and Brooklyn, DSNYs sources told The Post.

The scheme appears to involve a drug store employee submitting false data to the state, saying workers received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson jab, an insider said.

But the alleged fraud appeared to unravel because CVS was not distributing the Johnson & Johnson shot at the time, the insider said.

Subway will be full time and capacity restrictions will be removed (but some quasi-restrictions will remain) in New York in a few weeks.

Gothamist 

 Last week, Mayor Bill de Blasio said he wanted New York City to fully reopen by July 1st for what he dubbed the "Summer of New York." But today, Governor Andrew Cuomo trumped him by announcing that most capacity restrictions for businesses, restaurants and cultural venues would be lifted by May 19th.

Cuomo said that this announcement, which was being made in parallel with the governors across the tri-state area, will affect retail stores, gyms and fitness centers, amusement parks, hair salons and barber shops, offices, Broadway theaters, museums, restaurants and bars. He added that individual venues and businesses could make their own decisions about whether they are ready to reopen in May—most Broadway shows, for instance, won't be able to resume productions immediately, but the option is there.

For all these businesses, the CDC's six foot social distancing guidance is still in effect, but if a gathering or venue can prove that all individuals present are fully vaccinated or have had a recent negative COVID test, then the six foot rule doesn't need to apply. The exception to this is if restaurants put up physical barriers between tables, in which case they don't need to worry about the six foot rule.

"So it's six feet, but if you say, I'm only going to allow press in the room who are fully vaccinated, I'm only going to allow people in the restaurant who are fully vaccinated or just took a negative test, then you can go above the six feet," Cuomo explained. He noted that if the CDC changes their recommendation, New York will reassess the six foot rule as well.

Cuomo went on to note that because of this rule, individual businesses could better incentivize people to get vaccinated — venue operators, he suggested, could allow more seats for vaccinated people, who would not be subjected to the six-foot rule, while those who are unvaccinated would still need to socially distance.

Cuomo previously announced that indoor dining would be expanded to 75% capacity in New York City, bringing the city in line with the rest of the state, starting May 7th. Per today's announcement, it will expand to 100% capacity as of May 19th. The midnight curfew will be lifted for outdoor dining beginning May 17th and for indoor dining beginning May 31st.

The indoor catered gathering limit will increase to 250 people, or 500 with negative COVID testing or proof of vaccination, as of May 19th. Residential gathering limits will increase to 50 people as of that date as well.

According to the state, venues that host live arts and entertainment can exceed social gathering limits of 500 people outdoors and 250 indoors "if all attendees over the age of four present either proof of full vaccination status or recent negative COVID-19 test result and the required social distancing can be accommodated."

Outdoor large stadiums and arenas—such as Citi Field and Yankee Stadium—will increase to 33% capacity as of May 19th, but Cuomo said they are looking to expand that.

Cuomo also announced that in conjunction with the reopening of New York, 24-hour subway service will resume as of May 17th for the first time since the early days of the pandemic.

"We think there's a moment of opportunity here, and we're going to build a totally different New York. We're going to reimagine it, we're going to renew it, it's going to be a New York that never existed before," Cuomo said about the post-pandemic revival. "We're going to fix a lot of the things that we should have fixed all along, and it can be a moment for a New York renaissance."