A Push to Get New York Vaccinated

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It’s Thursday.

Weather: Keep an umbrella handy — it’ll be rainy, and gusty afternoon thunderstorms could produce heavy downpours. High in the upper 70s.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until Aug. 15 (Feast of the Assumption).

Credit…Richard Drew/Associated Press

New York State employees will be required to show proof of vaccination or be subjected to weekly testing, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Wednesday.

And Mayor Bill de Blasio said New York City would give $100 to people who receive their first doses at city-run vaccination sites.

Both efforts reflect a growing push to compel or entice holdouts to get vaccinated, my colleagues Michael Gold and Sharon Otterman reported.

As of Wednesday, nearly 71 percent of New York City adults and 59 percent of the city’s total population had received at least one dose of a vaccine, and more than 65 percent of adults and 54 percent of the total population were fully vaccinated. Currently, most New York State employees are not subject to regular testing, except those working in some congregate settings like colleges and universities.

But even as they announced the new measures, designed to address rising case counts of the virus and quell the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, Mr. de Blasio and Mr. Cuomo said they were not yet prepared to adopt federal guidance that vaccinated people wear masks indoors in areas with high coronavirus transmission.

“We got it less than 24 hours ago, and it is complicated information,” Mr. de Blasio said of the guidance, issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “So our health team is reviewing, and we’ll have more to say on it in the next few days.”

[Read more about the new vaccination mandates and incentives.]

Resisting another mask mandate

C.D.C. officials said Tuesday that both vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans should wear masks indoors in parts of the country that have recorded more than 50 new infections per 100,000 residents over the previous week, or where more than 8 percent of tests are positive for infection over that period. All five of New York City’s boroughs fall under those parameters. Staten Island has again become a virus hot spot.

What the vaccine mandate for state employees says

Mr. Cuomo’s mandate will take effect on Sept. 6.

The governor also announced a much stricter mandate for state-run hospitals, saying that vaccination would be required for all “patient-facing” health care workers at those facilities, without the option of regular testing.

The governor said the new policy was aimed at the 25 percent of adults, or 3.1 million people, in the state who remain unvaccinated. He also said the state would work with unions — which in New York City and elsewhere have pushed back against such mandates — to implement the requirement.

More about the virus in New York:

Rise in Covid Cases Alarms New Yorkers: ‘It Never Went Away’

As Delta Variant Spreads, N.Y.C. Parents Worry About Coming School Year

From The Times

Cuomo’s Counsel, a Key Figure in Sexual Harassment Inquiry, Will Resign

Star Sommelier Is Charged With Setting Outdoor Dining Sheds on Fire

Nxivm Member Avoids Prison After Helping to Convict Sex Cult Leader

Officer Fired After N.Y.P.D. Finds He Raped Girl From Youth Program

Brooklyn Plumber Who Ran for State Senate Is Charged in Capitol Riot

Want more news? Check out our full coverage.

The Mini Crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

What we’re reading

A Brooklyn woman has died after being pulled down the stairs during an attempted robbery this monthin a Manhattan subway station. [CBS New York]

Allegations of voter fraud and anti-immigrant discrimination plagued a manual vote recount for the Republican primary election for City Council on Staten Island. [Gothamist]

The gun manufacturer Remington has offered about $33 million to settle a lawsuit with families of the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting victims. [New York Daily News]

And finally: Make the most of summer with these outdoor shows

The Times’s Michael Gold writes:

After a long drought, live music has started to return to New York City’s indoor venues, and I — like many — am thrilled.

But there are still few things I love more than summer outdoor concerts. How many opportunities do we city dwellers really get to marry our love of fresh outdoor air with the sensory pleasure of live music? And who doesn’t love the taste of chaos brought by seeing the phrases “weather permitting” or “rain or shine” on a ticket?

We here at the Summer in the City newsletter are particularly excited about the return of the BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival to Prospect Park’s Lena Horne Bandshell — a venue we love for its convenience and a series we love because it’s mostly free.

The opening night of the summer series kicks off on Saturday with a show with the neo-soul singer Ari Lennox, the rapper Kamauu and the R&B artist Nesta. Artists to follow include the Roots on Aug. 12 (a ticketed show, though proceeds will benefit the festival), Skip Marley on Aug. 13 and Wizkid on Sept. 11. There will also be screenings of “Wattstax” on Aug. 5 and “In the Heights” on Aug. 26.

Or maybe rock is more your bag. If so, head to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens. On Saturday, Bright Eyes, a band beloved by moody millennials in the mid-aughts, will take the stage, along with Waxahatchee and Lucy Dacus (two artists about whom I have spent entirely too much time texting The Times’s pop music editor).

Need more time to plan? The next couple of months bring shows by Wilco and Sleater-Kinney on Aug. 21, the Dropkick Murphys and Rancid on Aug. 28, and My Morning Jacket and Brittany Howard (of Alabama Shakes) on Sept. 10 and 11.

Also in the borough, on Sunday, Grupo Rebolu will bring their modern Caribbean sound to the Queens Theater’s outdoor stage in Corona Plaza.

Chances are, if you keep your ears open and wander toward music, you’ll be able to find something similar in your neighborhood.

It’s Thursday — listen to your block.

Metropolitan Diary: Lunchtime at Tiffany’s

Dear Diary:

It was the early 1980s. We were stopped at a light going to work around 55th Street and Fifth Avenue. The rain was coming down in buckets as people shuffled quickly past the front of our car.

I was on the passenger side. Someone had dropped their wallet, and no one seemed to have noticed. I went to pick it up, hoping to find the owner. The person who dropped it seemed to have disappeared into the crowd of umbrellas.

When I got back into the car, I looked for identification. There was a business card with a woman’s name, phone number and title: senior vice president, Tiffany & Company.

When I got to my office, I called her immediately. We arranged to meet at 12:30 at the entrance to the Tiffany building.

By then, the rain had stopped and the sun had broken through. When I got to the building, a middle-age, well-dressed woman was there to greet me.

She expressed her gratitude as I gave her the wallet. Then she reached into the wallet and gave me her business card.

“You never know,” she said. “Perhaps I can help you someday.”

Six months later, I got a call from a friend who had been out of work for more than a year. He was trying to get an interview at Tiffany’s for a management position. He asked whether I knew anyone there.

Maybe, I said, and made a call to my new contact.

She answered the phone and seemed happy to hear from me.

I explained the situation, and she asked for my friend’s résumé.

Two weeks later, my friend called again.

He got the job.

— Albert Crecca

Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Read more Metropolitan Diary here.

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