Mayor de Blasio expands vaccine eligibility to taxi drivers, restaurant workers

Mayor Bill de Blasio is opening up coronavirus vaccine eligibility to taxi drivers, restaurants workers and those at developmental disability facilities

News 12 Staff

Feb 3, 2021, 6:40 PM

Updated 1,409 days ago

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Mayor Bill de Blasio is opening up coronavirus vaccine eligibility to taxi drivers, restaurants workers and those at developmental disability facilities.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo had left the decision to specific regions of the state about whether they wanted to expand those eligible for the vaccine for group 1B.
The mayor says with the governor’s decision to reopen indoor dining in the city, this was a decision that had to be made.
“Obviously once the state made the decision to open up restaurants for indoor dining again, it was clear to me the folks who work in the restaurants deserved the right to be vaccinated. They were vulnerable, they deserve the right to be vaccinated.”
Those residents join the other seven million New York residents eligible for the vaccine.
De Blasio says the goal is to get 500,000 people vaccinated a week, but they need a larger supply.
He says the federal government has increased supply and has faith they will continue to do so, but there needs to be more focus.
Executive Director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance Bhairavi Desai also responded to Cuomo’s initial announcement, saying: “We are relieved to know Gov. Cuomo has corrected the gross neglect where drivers, a majority low-wage, immigrant and people color workforce, were treated like second-class citizens and ignored in the first rollout of the vaccines despite the inclusion of all other transportation workers.”
The group is also calling on delivery workers and retail workers to be added to those eligible for vaccines.