NYC, big employers take tough line on vaccine laggards



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New York on Tuesday became the first major city in the country to announce that it will require proof of COVID-19 vaccination at restaurants, shows and gyms, joining the growing list of state and local governments and large employers adopting a hard line against the burgeoning delta variant and vaccine laggards.

Meat and poultry giant Tyson Foods has said it will require all of its roughly 120,000 U.S. employees to be vaccinated over the next three months, becoming one of the first major employers of frontline workers to do it. And about 150,000 unionized workers from the Big Three US automakers will have to resume wearing masks from Wednesday.

“The goal here is to convince everyone that now is the time. If we’re going to stop the delta variant, now is the time. And that means getting vaccinated now, ”said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, announcing aggressive new measures that will take effect in mid-August.

Vaccination cards will be accepted as proof of vaccination, along with state and city applications.

COVID-19 cases in the United States have increased sixfold over the past month to an average of more than 85,000 per day, a level not seen since mid-February. Deaths have climbed over the past two weeks, from an average of 254 per day to 386.

Florida now has more people hospitalized with COVID-19 than at any time during the outbreak – more than 11,500. Louisiana has reported a record high of more than 2,100 hospitalized patients with the virus, most of them unvaccinated. Immunization rates in both states are lower than the national average.

“They just arrive faster than we unload them. They’re definitely people in their 40s and 50s right now, ”said Justin Senior, CEO of the Florida Safety Net Hospital Alliance, which represents some of the state’s largest hospitals serving the poor.

The crisis has become a race between the delta variant and the vaccine. Experts say the vaccine is still very effective in preventing serious illness and death from the most contagious mutant version.

Amid growing alarm over the return of the virus, vaccinations across the country have started to increase slightly in recent weeks, reaching over half a million a day on average, but are still well below peak of 3.4 million per day. April day.

Seventy percent of adults nationwide have received at least one injection and nearly 61% are fully immunized – well below where President Joe Biden wanted the United States to be at this point.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for re-election next year while considering a 2024 presidential bid, doubled on Tuesday as the state again broke its record for hospitalizations for COVID-19, insisting that the peak will subside soon and that it will not impose any trade restrictions or mask mandates. He encouraged people to get vaccinated.

“We are not closing,” DeSantis said. “We are going to open schools. We protect the work of every Floridian in this state. We protect small businesses from people. “

The auto industry’s decision to disguise itself again was made by representatives from General Motors, Ford, the parent company of Chrysler, and the United Auto Workers union, and this applies even to employees who have been vaccinated. The move comes just under a month after vaccinated auto workers were allowed to remove their masks.

As for Tyson, Donnie King, CEO of Springdale, Arkansas, said in a note to employees that the vaccine requirement is necessary to overcome persistent reluctance to get vaccinated.

“We did not take this decision lightly. We’ve spent months encouraging our team members to get vaccinated – today less than half of our team members are, ”King wrote.

In New York City, Sean Ogs, manager of the Woodside Cafe in Queens, said he was “stunned” when he heard the news of mandatory vaccinations for customers.

“We’ve been in a fight before. I don’t know how I’m going to handle this, ”Ogs said. “It’s going to be extra work. It will make things impossible.

Debbie McCarthy, a regular at the Woodside Cafe who is not vaccinated, said she was turned away over the weekend from several establishments that had already started demanding proof.

“I’m a little shocked that they’re doing this,” said McCarthy, who said she recovered from COVID-19 months ago and believes her antibodies will protect her from another infection. “Why are they so afraid of people who haven’t been vaccinated? I think we should have a choice.

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Associated Press editors Alexandra Olson in New York; Tom Krisher in Detroit; and Freida Frisaro and Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, contributed to this report.

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