NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced more events celebrating New York City’s progress, but they’re only for those who are vaccinated.
The iconic Apollo Theater will host what the mayor calls an extravaganza — a concert next week with numerous acts as the city builds out its Homecoming Week celebrations. Tickets are free, and they’re for vaccinated people only.
So far, 75% of all adults in New York City have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 56% of 12- to 17-year-olds in the city have received at least one dose.
Over 80,000 have received that $100 incentive to get vaccinated.
The city is now calling on PTAs to help and say they’ll get $100 for every student and family member they sign up.
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Earlier this week, indoor businesses like gyms, bars and restaurants started checking customers’ proof of vaccination status.
With the rise of fake vaccine cards, CBS2’s Alice Gainer asked the mayor what the city is doing to help workers spot a fake.
“If you think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna be cute and take a vaccination card and alter it’ and then you go and you get in some place, you’ve just shown that you did an illegal act with serious, serious penalties, so my message to everyone is don’t even think about that,” de Blasio said. “We definitely will provide training … Definitely a lot of dialogue with restaurants, bars, theaters, et cetera.”
Meanwhile, two large city parades have just pulled the plug on marching this year.
The West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn will not be held. Instead, organizers say small in-person and virtual events will take place.
The Coney Island Mermaid Parade has also been canceled due to COVID concerns.
Over in New Jersey, the marathon and half-marathon set for this fall were canceled by the city of Long Branch.
All eyes are now looking toward the New York City Marathon in November and other races.
“I think everyone is still excited about it. I don’t think it’s gonna stop people from training,” one person said.
“I’m running the Hartford marathon in October, so I’m just fingers crossed that that will happen,” runner Jordan McMeans said.
The New York Road Runners says it’s still on and in a statement told CBS2 in part, “We will continue to work closely in coordination with the CDC, the New York State Department of Health, and the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, and under the guidance of medical and public health experts.”
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But some are confused as to why some large outdoor events can be held and not others.
“Everybody is not on the same page, and that’s one of the biggest problems with society in this pandemic,” said Javier Andino.
“You’re in a lower risk community just by creating the ability to say you can only go to the concert if you’re vaccinated, whereas something like a parade, which goes on on public streets, you have no way of controlling your crowd and you’re going to have vaccinated and mixing with unvaccinated people,” said Dr. Eric Cioe-Peña, director of global health at Northwell Health.
Though the risk outdoors is low, he says, “When you get to a certain density of people, you are going to see transmission, especially if people aren’t wearing face masks.”
from CBS New York https://ift.tt/2Izr88c