After bearing the brunt of the pandemic lockdowns and repeated restrictions, eateries in New York aren’t happy with Bill de Blasio’s new vaccination mandate that gives access to only fully-vaccinated citizens.
While the mayor of New York bragged about how happy restauranters will be with the new vaccine ID mandate, the reality had something different to offer. As reported by the NY Post, a slew of eateries are severely disappointed with the new order since it means less business for them. De Blasio said the first month of the mandate will be devoted to educating merchants and patrons about the need for the vaccine. The city then will start to enforce the restrictions Sept. 13, with fines of $1,000 for the first offense and $2,000 for a second.
Source: AP News/Mark Lennihan
When interviewed by the outlet, restauranters were rather uneasy about the move, considering it will go against the rules of hospitality, wherein eateries will have to refuse entry to those who aren’t vaccinated.
Georgie Fulton, 31, a server at The Long Island Bar, also in Brooklyn, said the new restrictions could make it even harder to find employees amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Everyone’s struggling to find more staff, and then that’s just one extra thing that we have to do that takes time,” she said. “It’s just time-consuming and annoying.”
Samanta Olivo, a cashier at Blue Collar in Brooklyn, said the mandate is “a pain in the a**. If you’re hungry, I’m gonna sit here and be like, ‘No, you can’t come in, you cannot get food, because you’re not vaccinated? ‘” said Olivo, 19. “That’s over the line, in a sense. That’s not cool. “It’s too much,” she said.
As it stands, the vaccine ID mandate is part of de Blasio’s push to get more New Yorkers vaccinated as the COVID-19 Delta variant has prompted a resurgence of the pandemic.
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