BREAKING: NYC mandates COVID vaccines for children, private-sector employees

Now that children have been approved to receive the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has extended his demand that New Yorkers get vaccinated to that age group as well.

While schools have not made the vaccine mandatory for 5-11 year olds, de Blasio has declared that children, too, must show proof of their COVID vaccination before they are allowed to dine out indoors, or attend entertainments. Children will have to show that they have had at least one dose of Pfizer, according to NBC.

"We've got Omicron as a new factor, we've got the colder weather, which is going to really create additional challenges with the Delta variant," de Blasio said. "We've got holiday gatherings, we in New York City have decided to use a preemptive strike to really do something bold to stop the further growth of COVID and the danger it's causing to all of us.

"So as of today, we're going to announce a first in the nation measure our health commissioner will announce a vaccine mandate for private sector employers across the board," he said. "All private sector employers in New York City will be covered by this vaccine mandate as of December 27. We're gonna have some other measures as well, to really focus on maximizing vaccination quickly, so we can get ahead of Omicron and all the other challenges we're facing right now with COVID."

Children only became eligible to receive the vaccination a month ago. Since then, the Biden administration has been pressuring parents to get their children vaccinated. Consistently left out of the conversation as regards requiring COVID vaccines for children is that they are the least vulnerable to this virus. Per CDC records, there have been very few deaths or hospitalizations of children in the 5-11 age group as a result of COVID.

"Our youngest kids, we got to reach them now," de Blasio said. "Right now in this city, it's about 20% have gotten to that stage in that 5 to 11 range. The vaccine is relatively new. But what we're trying to say to parents is it's urgent. Before Omicron grows, before Delta continues to stress us even worse in the winter months, get your kid vaccinated. And here's an incentive to do it."

This as de Blasio has also demanded a vaccine mandate for all private-sector workers in the city. Previously, de Blasio had only required city workers to undergo the jab. The deadline for this will be December 27.

"We’ve got Omicron as a new factor," de Blasio said Monday morning. "We’ve got the colder weather which is going to really create additional challenges with the Delta variant, we’ve got holiday gatherings. We in New York City have decided to use a preemptive strike to really do something bold to stop the further growth of COVID and the dangers it’s causing to all of us."

About 35.7 percent of children from 5-11 are fully vaccinated with two shots, and about 47 percent have had the first shot only.

While de Blasio hasn't required all New Yorkers to get a third shot of vaccine, he didn't rule that out, saying that a booster shot could be added to the mandate at some point.

The Biden administration has issued its own vaccine mandates for federal employees, as well as for those in the private sector. A court has blocked those mandates, however, stating that the federal government does not have the legal right to impose medical treatment as a condition of work. Many companies are fighting against the mandates, and a health system in Florida has refused to comply with it altogether.