With the new measures, de Blasio says he wants to carry out a “preventive attack” on the corona virus, which could still hit hard during the end of the year and the winter months. Especially with the unpredictable omikron variant looming on the horizon, he wants to err on the side of caution. For de Blasio personally it is also a last noted achievement, because on January 1 he passes the torch to Eric Adams.
VRT NWS correspondent Björn Soenens, who lives in New York himself, does not think there will be much resistance to the new measures. “This is New York City, most people here are convinced of the importance of vaccination. And children don’t go to a restaurant without their parents either. A lawsuit is always possible, but it won’t evoke much resistance from the residents of the city,” he thinks.
Also contributing is the trauma the city suffered in the first wave of the pandemic. Then there were 35,000 deaths out of a population of 8.5 million. That experience has cut hard for the New Yorkers.
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