New York requiring vaccines for museum visitors and staff

New York City has announced it is requiring vaccinations for museum visitors and staffers as COVID-19 cases continue to tick up across the country.

The new policy includes vaccination mandates for museums, concert halls, aquariums, gyms, professional sporting venues and zoos. 

“Starting tomorrow, you’ll need proof of vaccination to unlock everything New York City has to offer,” NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) tweeted Monday.

Starting tomorrow, you’ll need proof of vaccination to unlock everything New York City has to offer. Valid proof of vaccine includes:

☑️ Paper CDC card
☑️ Excelsior Pass
☑️ NYC COVID Safe App
☑️ Any Official Vaccine Record pic.twitter.com/yhCblgDVci

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) August 16, 2021

Children 12 years or younger will have to be accompanied by an older person who is vaccinated and is encouraged to wear a mask in those settings.

The new mandate comes as another wave of coronavirus cases is spreading in the country, as the highly contagious delta variant is hitting the unvaccinated the hardest. 

The 33 members of the Cultural Institutions Group have been in talks for the past few weeks with the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs on the issue of a vaccination mandate, with all members agreeing to the measure, The New York Times reported Monday. 

The executive director of the group New Yorkers for Culture & Arts Lucy Sexton told the Times that they want audiences and their employees to feel safe when returning to shows, given that they lost revenue due to regulating the new mandates 

“We were the first to be shut and we were the last to reopen,” Sexton told the Times. “The whole field has not been given the measure of relief others have.”