New York City municipal workers no longer will be required to be vaccinated for COVID, Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday.
Adams said the vaccine mandate will end Friday, when vaccination for coronavirus would become optional for current and prospective city workers.
Employees who were fired for not being vaccinated can apply for positions with their former agencies through the normal hiring process, city officials said.
The lifting of the mandate also means visitors to city schools no longer will be required to provide proof of at least one dose of the vaccine to enter.
"With more than 96 percent of city workers and more than 80 percent of New Yorkers having received their primary COVID-19 series and more tools readily available to keep us healthy, this is the right moment for this decision," Adams said in a statement.
"This is the right moment for this decision. I continue to urge every New Yorker to get vaccinated, get boosted, and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and those around them from COVID-19."
Republican lawmakers welcomed the announcement.
"This news will come as an incredible relief to thousands of city workers and their families, and the parents and guardians who have been barred from attending their children’s public school events," the City Council’s six Republicans said in a statement that also was signed by moderate Democrats Kalman Yeger, of Brooklyn, and Robert Holden, of Queens.
"There is more to be done for those workers who were unjustly fired for making personal medical choices, but this is a tremendous step toward righting the wrongs of the previous administration’s misguided pandemic policies"
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio began the vaccine mandate for city workers in October 2021.
Hundreds of city workers were fired and a series of lawsuits were filed as a result of the requirement.
Democrat Adams, in his second year in office, ended many of the mandates implemented by de Blasio.
The mayor last year ended vaccine mandates for private employers and for indoor dining and ended mask mandates at schools.
In a release Monday, the city said that more than 331,000 city workers had been fully vaccinated.
The New York Times reported roughly 1,780 city workers terminated for not getting vaccinated. Nearly half of those are believed to be Department of Education employees, with others including NYPD officers and FDNY firefighters, the Daily News reported.