“We’d like assist now … and we want a surge of assist when it comes to monoclonal antibody therapies,” de Blasio stated at a briefing on Sunday. “We’d like extra made obtainable for New York Metropolis.”
The mayor, who will depart workplace on New 12 months’s Eve, stated town has launched a $10 million advertising marketing campaign to push for extra individuals to get vaccinated and can add new testing websites.
Town recorded greater than 5,000 new Covid-19 circumstances on Saturday. “We have to act urgently,” de Blasio stated.
The mayor expects to see a rise in Covid-19 circumstances within the subsequent few weeks after which the variety of circumstances will ease. However, he added, “we don’t anticipate to see a few of the painful actuality we noticed within the spring of 2020 and even final winter.”
Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who will take workplace on Jan. 1, stated throughout the briefing that his group and de Blasio’s are coordinating as a brand new disaster takes form.
“My message to New Yorkers is identical: We’re on this collectively,” Adams stated. “However the one manner we get our metropolis again is to search out our resolve as soon as once more and face this disaster head on.”
“Vaccination stays very important, even in opposition to Omicron,” metropolis Well being Commissioner Dave Chokshi added.
De Blasio stated town has the power to get individuals vaccinated and boosted shortly.
Extra testing websites all through town will develop into obtainable, and town will distribute high-quality masks and improve efforts to encourage booster photographs, the mayor stated. At-home testing kits might be made obtainable by means of community-based organizations to assist scale back lengthy waits at testing websites.
In accordance with Ted Lengthy, who heads town’s Take a look at and Hint Corps, there might be eight extra brick and mortar testing websites throughout the 5 boroughs by Tuesday. Meaning there might be 30 fastened websites and 93 cellular models in whole.
Shortly after the briefing, Adams stated on MSNBC that his first order of enterprise might be to make sure that “all of our businesses are coordinated to make sure that we’re encouraging vaccination,” and that he’ll work with enterprise leaders to see how they plan to maintain town working by means of the disaster.
Requested whether or not he’ll proceed to assist de Blasio’s vaccination mandates, together with one which applies to private-sector staff and is scheduled to take impact on Dec. 27, Adams stated it’s unsure what is going to occur within the coming weeks. “We’re going to reevaluate what the mayor has tried to do with the mandates in all workplaces and all companies and I’ll make a willpower there on January 1,” he stated. “Proper now, we have now one mayor.”