The New York State Department has released new guidelines for healthcare workers and other essential workforce who have tested positive for Covid-19 and are fully vaccinated so that they can return to work.
The fully vaccinated workers will be allowed to return to the workplace after five days if they have no fever for at least 72 hours without medication, have no symptoms or are improving, have no rhinorrhea/runny nose and have no more than minimal cough. They will not be required to take the COVID test.
The vaccine mandate that requires the entire private sector in New York City to be vaccinated is now in place as well. Mayor Bill de Blasio had announced the vaccine mandate as a protective measure against the increasing threat of the Omicron variant.
The fear of infection increased during the festive season when people had to interact more closely and the likelihood of them throwing caution to the wind while meeting with each other was high.
All the employees from more than 1,84,000 businesses in NYC will have to present proof that they’ve received at least one shot of the vaccine. If they fail to comply with the orders, the businesses and their employees could face a minimum fine of from $ 1,000.
Employees are allowed to take exemption on medical and religious grounds but they will have to present proper documents to prove their conditions. New York remains the only state in the US till now to set a mandate on vaccination.
