coronavirus new york city

COVID vaccine mandate begins for private school teachers, staff in New York City

Coronavirus update for NYC

BySonia Rincon, Eyewitness News WABC logo

Monday, December 20, 2021

Vaccine mandate begins for private school teachers in NYC

Sonia Rincon reports on the start of the mandate for private school teachers in New York City.

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The latest COVID vaccine mandates kicked in for private and religious school teachers in New York City Monday.

Just as they have at public schools, employees at Catholic schools, yeshivas and other independent schools now have to have had their first dose of vaccine.

It affects about 56,000 employees at 930 schools, and those schools need to hand their records over to the city showing compliance by December 28.

The city could fine schools that do not comply.

There was immediate pushback as soon as this was announced, from the Committee of New York City Religious and Independent Schools, but the mayor isn't budging when it comes to mandates.

"The mandates we put in place are absolutely necessary," Mayor Bill de Blasio said. "They will be enforced. We're going to double down on those, because they are necessary to fight omicron and to make sure this is a brief period of time and one that does not leave too many scars on the people of this city. The vaccination mandates are more important than ever given from what we're seeing, given what we're seeing from omicron on the ground."

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