NYC Mayor Adams set to end COVID vaccine mandates for private sector, student athletes — but city worker rule stays

Mayor Adams is expected to announce Tuesday that he’s scrapping the city’s coronavirus vaccine mandates for private sector employees and student athletes — but the inoculation requirement for municipal workers will stay in place, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Implemented by former Mayor Bill de Blasio, the private sector and student mandates have been in place since late last year.

The workforce rule, which was the first of its kind in the country when announced by de Blasio in December, has required all private sector employees in the city to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The second policy has mandated that high school students be vaccinated if they want to engage in extracurricular sports and activities.

Adams was expected to reveal he’s rolling back both mandates during a press conference at City Hall on Tuesday morning, the two sources confirmed to the Daily News, speaking on condition of anonymity to preempt the announcement. The expected mandate rescission was first reported by Politico.

It was not immediately clear if Adams will end the mandates effective right away or if there’s an extended timeline.

Since taking office in January, Adams has moved methodically to peel back out various COVID-19 restrictions put in place by de Blasio.

This spring, Adams ended the indoor vaccine mandate for restaurants and bars. He took away the mask requirements in public schools around the same time, too.

But one pandemic precaution that he’s not ending at the moment is the vaccine mandate for the city’s municipal workforce, one of the sources said.

The mandate has required the city’s more than 300,000 municipal workers — including teachers, cops and firefighters — to be fully vaccinated. The requirement has for months prompted loud protests from a small group of unvaccinated city workers as well as Republicans in the City Council.

Despite the focus on the municipal mandate, only 1,761 city employees workers had gotten fired for refusing to get vaccinated as of Aug. 30, according to data from the mayor’s office.

This story will be updated