Brendan O’Brien, Peter Szekely

NEW YORK (Reuters), New York City announced Monday that every private-sector employer must comply with COVID-19 mandates regarding workers. The Omicron variant, which is highly transmissible, has now reached least one-third the U.S.

For all 184,000 U.S. businesses located within its boundaries, the Dec. 27 deadline was set to require them to show evidence that their employees have been immunized.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that all children between 5 and 11 years of age must receive at least one vaccination by Dec. 14. This is in addition to their right to enter schools and participate in extracurricular activities such as dance, sports, orchestra, or band.

“Vaccination is the way out of this pandemic, and these are bold, first-in-the-nation measures to encourage New Yorkers to keep themselves and their communities safe,” de Blasio, who leaves office next month, said in a statement.

De Blasio’s successor, Eric Adams, “will evaluate this mandate and other COVID strategies when he is in office and make determinations based on science, efficacy and the advice of health professionals,” said his spokesperson Evan Thies.

The requirements come at a time when new coronavirus infections are accelerating nationwide https://tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR, especially in northern states, as colder weather has encouraged more mingling and socializing indoors.

A Reuters tally shows that the average number of new infections in the country over the last week was more than 125,000 per day. That’s 64% less than the week before.

The death rate from lag-related infections has increased to 1,300 per person over the last seven consecutive days, compared with an average of 800 per person a week ago.

Dr. Rochelle Wilensky from the CDC stated that 99.9% still come from Delta.

Omicron was first discovered in Southern Africa last month. It has since spread to other parts of the world and is more infectious than the Delta strain.

According to a Reuters count, there have been several dozen Omicron cases in 17 of the 50 U.S. States: California, Colorado. Connecticut. Georgia. Hawaii. Massachusetts. Minnesota. Missouri. Nebraska. New Jersey. New York. Pennsylvania. Utah. Washington.

Louisiana also reports a possible Omicron infection in an Omicron-positive crew member of a cruise ship, which disembarked at New Orleans this weekend. According to state health officials, the ship had at least 17 COVID-19-related cases. Additional testing is currently underway.

There are many Wall Street banks with headquarters in New York. Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:), Morgan Stanley (NYSE: Citigroup (NYSE) already requires that anyone entering their offices be vaccinated. JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:), the largest U.S. bank, has so far allowed unvaccinated employees to come to work in offices if they submit to twice-weekly COVID-19 tests.

Alphabet (NASDAQ) Inc’s Google (NASDAQ) and Meta’s Facebook(NASDAQ) both have New York City operations. All U.S. workers must be vaccinated before they can enter buildings.

The litigation has ensnared President Joe Biden’s nationwide mandate for vaccines that was issued to companies employing 100 or more workers earlier in the year. In November, a U.S. appeals court https://www.reuters.com/world/us/federal-appeals-court-affirms-stay-biden-vaccine-mandate-2021-11-12 upheld its decision to put on hold the order.

De Blasio acknowledged that several mandates had been issued in the past by the city to cover other groups of municipal workers and expressed hope that this new order would stand up against legal scrutiny.

On MSNBC, he stated that “We’re confident because it is universal”