Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday urged every New Yorker to again wear masks in all indoor public places as city health officials prepared for the imminent arrival of the Omicron variant.
“It’s time to remind people and double down and say, ‘Even if you started to move away from masks before, we’re telling you to get those masks back on now,’ ” de Blasio said at a remote press briefing from City Hall.
City Health Commissioner David Chokshi said the advisory covers even fully vaccinated people and those who have had the virus.
“Today I’m issuing a commissioner’s advisory strongly recommending that all New Yorkers wear a mask at all times when indoors and in a public setting like at your grocery or in building lobbies, offices, and retail stores,” said Health Commissioner David Chokshi.
“This includes those that are vaccinated and those who’ve had COVID-19.”
The new guidance reinforces a similar advisory released by the city in August to tackle the Delta variant.
The city’s latest move was ripped by some local business leaders.
“They’re sending mixed messages when they ask for people to come back, but on the other hand say that you should wear masks in the office,” said Kathy Wylde, the head of the Big Apple’s main business group, the Partnership for New York City.
“Taking time to understand the impact of the Omicron is important because we just had too many stops and starts on the COVID protocols,” she said.
But the new guidance was embraced by the city’s main real-estate group.
“Moving forward on the path to full economic recovery means beating the virus – and that will only happen if all New Yorkers stay focused on maximizing vaccination rates, getting their boosters and following all public health guidance on masking and other safety precautions,” said James Whelan, the president of the Real Estate Board.
While city officials said there are currently no confirmed cases of Omicron in New York, it’s only a matter of time, Chokshi said.
“We do anticipate detecting Omicron in New York in the coming days based upon what we know about its global spread,” he said.
On Monday, de Blasio also extended the vaccine mandate for city-funded child care workers to all staff at day cares in the Big Apple. Those 102,000 workers must get the COVID-19 shot by Dec. 20, the mayor announced.
The mayor said he’d been preparing for the child care worker mandate for weeks but that it became more pressing with the emergence of the Omicron variant.
Weekly coronavirus cases across the five boroughs are currently almost all linked back to the Delta variant and have increased by 50 percent over the last month.
There were roughly 200 cases per 10,000 people Oct. 31. The cases are now over 300 per 10,000 people, according to city Health Department data.
Still, the virus’s daily caseload and test positivity rates remain far lower in New York City than in upstate communities, which are currently struggling through another outbreak of COVID.
Those parts of New York typically have much lower vaccination rates than New York City, where de Blasio imposed a series of vaccine mandates and incentive programs over the summer to try and head off any future surges.
The daily positive-test rate in the five boroughs was 2.4 percent Saturday, up from 1.75 percent two weeks earlier.
Statewide, the positivity rate Saturday was 4.1 percent.
In western New York, which includes Buffalo, the positivity rate was an astounding 10.3 percent; while it was 9.6 percent in the Finger Lakes.
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