An MTA worker is seen wearing a mask on the subway after The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced a mandatory coronaviruses vaccine or weekly test mandate for employees in New York City, New York, August 2, 2021.
New York City strongly recommended that everyone wear masks indoors regardless of vaccine status, due to the new, highly mutated strain of Covid named omicron.
All New Yorkers are strongly recommended to wear a mask when indoors and in public. The commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told reporters during an update that it was like at your grocery or in a building lobby.
New York City has not found any cases of omicron so far, according to outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio. The most important tool to fight Covid-19 is vaccination.
There are no omicron cases in New York City. There are no cases at this time, but it is likely that there will be. We are going to focus on vaccination again. Vaccination is crucial to any strategy for addressing omicron.
It will probably be a few days before omicron is found in New York City. He said the city has a strong system that can quickly identify omicron.
The World Health Organization warned in a technical paper that omicron poses a high risk of further transmission. The variant has more than 30 changes to the spike protein. According to the WHO, some of the genes are associated with higher transmission and a decrease in protection.
De Blasio encouraged parents to have their children vaccinations. New Yorkers were urged to get their booster shots as soon as possible. 102,000 people who work in early intervention programs were covered by the vaccine mandates doubled by the mayor. The deadline is December 20.
New York City has a high vaccination rate, with 81% of adults in the city having received at least one dose. Only 16% of kids 5 to 11 have received one shot. The city has given more than one million booster shots.
According to the city's health department, there are about 1,400 new covid infections a day in New York City.
