For the past several weeks, there has been renewed hope that New York City would lift its private sector COVID-19 vaccine mandate following the end of the city’s vaccine mandate pertaining to indoor dining and entertainment on March 7.
The private sector mandate is having a large impact on the sports world, as Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving is unable to play in games taking place in New York City, including in his home arena of Barclays Center.
Those hopes were dampened on Friday.
According to ABC7 New York, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said the private sector mandate will remain in place indefinitely.
“I think it’s indefinite at this point,” Vasan said. “People who have tried to predict what’s going to happen in the future for this pandemic have repeatedly found egg on their face, as they say. And I’m not going to do that here today.”
“I would love for me to sit here and say, I can give you a date or a data point for when we would lift those things,” he continued. “Right now, we are in a low risk environment, and we will continue to evaluate that data.”
The impact of the mandate has been on full display over the past week.
On Sunday, Irving attended Brooklyn’s game versus the New York Knicks at Barclays Center as a fan, as he was still unable to compete as a member of the Nets in the city of New York. Unvaccinated visiting team players are allowed to play in NYC according to the mandate.
The vaccine mandate may also have a major impact on New York’s two Major League Baseball teams, the New York Mets and the New York Yankees.
According to a report from The New York Times, playing at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx and Citi Field in Queens will not be a possibility for unvaccinated members of the Yankees and the Mets.
On Tuesday, Yankees slugger Aaron Judge was asked about his vaccination status, and his answer provided more questions.
“I’m still focused on getting to the first game of Spring Training,” Judge said at a press conference. “So, I think we’ll cross that bridge whenever the time comes, But right now, so many things could change. So, I’m not really too worried about that right now.”
On Sunday, Yankees manager Aaron Boone confirmed that his roster contains a “few guys” who aren’t vaccinated, meaning those who have refused the COVID-19 vaccine also will not be allowed to travel to Toronto to play the Blue Jays. The Yankees have nine scheduled games in Toronto during the 2022-2023 season and 81 regular season games in New York.
Opening Day of MLB’s regular season is April 7, when both the Yankees and the Mets will kick off the year.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].