August 13, 2021
So, today, I announce a new approach, which we’re calling the Key to NYC Pass. The key to New York City – when you hear those words, I want you to imagine the notion that because someone’s vaccinated, they can do all the amazing things that are available in this city. This is a miraculous place literally full of wonders. And, if you’re vaccinated, all that’s going to open up to you. You’ll have the key. You can open the door. But, if you’re un-vaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things. That’s the point we’re trying to get across. It’s time for people to see vaccination as literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life. The Key to NYC Pass will be a first-in-the-nation approach. It will require vaccination for workers and customers in indoor dining, in indoor fitness facilities, indoor entertainment facilities. This is going to be a requirement. The only way to patronize these establishments indoors will be if you’re vaccinated, at least one dose. The same for folks in terms of work, they’ll need at least one dose. This is crucial because we know that this will encourage a lot more vaccination. We’ve seen it already. We’ve seen the impact of the mandate we put in place for City workers already starting to move people to vaccination. We’ve obviously seen the positive impact of incentive as well. The goal here is to convince everyone that this is the time. If we’re going to stop the Delta variant, the time is now. And that means getting vaccinated right now.
This new policy will be phased in over the coming weeks. So, we have been working with the business community, getting input. We’re going to do more over the next few weeks. The final details of the policy will be announced and implemented in the week of August 16th. So, over the next couple of weeks, getting more feedback, finalizing the policy, publishing it, and beginning to implement it. We’ll then spend most of a month educating people, going out to businesses, receiving calls from businesses, answering questions and concerns, making sure everyone understands the new approach. And then, on September 13th, during that week, we’ll begin inspections and enforcement. So, we want to give businesses big and small a chance to get acclimated. We want to make adjustments based on their input, but this will move forward, starting in the week of August 16th, and then full enforcement and inspection begins the week of September 13th, which is very pertinent, because that’s the first full week after Labor Day when we really expect a lot more activity in this city.
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