NYC mayor to lift vaccine mandate requirements on performers and athletes: report

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) is anticipated to announce on Thursday that the city will be lifting vaccine mandate requirements for athletes and performers at local stadiums and centers, Politico reported, citing sources familiar.

That would mean that athletes like the Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving, who has not received the COVID-19 vaccine, would be able to participate in home events again. 

The news outlet noted the start of the baseball season being just around the corner, with the Yankees hosting the Boston Red Sox on April 7 and the Mets hosting the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 15.

The development comes as state and local officials have rolled back mask mandates and other COVID-19 protocols amid a decrease in coronavirus infections. Late last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention significantly eased its masking guidance by incorporating hospital capacity in its metrics instead of just caseloads.

President Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday that he did not think the U.S. would see another swell of COVID-19 cases from the new omicron subvariant. He also said that he did not think there was a reason to believe that the pandemic restrictions would be instituted again.

“I don’t think so, George, not right now. I don’t see us going back into any more really very restrict kinds of restrictions. But you always have to have the flexibility,” Fauci told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.”

The Hill has reached out to Adams’s office for comment.