NYC Restaurant, Bar COVID Vaccine Mandate Could Be Coming: Mayor

NEW YORK CITY — Unvaccinated New Yorkers could soon be 86'd from dining out in the city.

Health officials are considering a vaccine mandate for all city bars and restaurants, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.

The mayor said "all options are on the table" in response to the delta variant.

"We tried being communicative and open and compassionate and all that was good, but we need something also tough at this point," de Blasio told CNN Newsroom. "Incentives, yes, a hundred dollars per person, great deal. But we need mandates."

The delta variant has in part caused the seven-day average of cases in the city to rise from around 190 a month ago to over 1,000 now.

The city's health department has "very real powers" and "can put out a variety of rules," de Blasio said.

He argued that people will be more likely to get the shot — which has been proven to be safe and effective — if their vaccination status begins to prevent them from doing "the things that they want to do."

"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," de Blasio said. "That has to be the reality because people will respond to that."

This carrot-and-stick approach appears to be gaining momentum in the city and across the nation.

De Blasio this week mandated that all city government workers either get vaccinated or submit to weekly tests. Gov. Andrew Cuomo followed suit with a similar requirement for state employees, as did President Joe Biden for federal workers.

Businesses and other non-governmental institutions appear to be following the lead.

Restaurateur Danny Meyer announced Thursday that he will require staff and guests at all of his New York City and Washington, D.C. restaurants to show proof of vaccination.

"We feel like we've got an amazing responsibility to keep our staff members and our customers safe," Meyer told CNBC. "And that's what we're going to do."

The Broadway League on Friday declared that all audience members, as well as performers and other staff, at shows must be fully vaccinated.