Vaccine Cards Still Required At These NYC Venues

NEW YORK, NY — After Mayor Eric Adams's decision to lift New York City's vaccine mandate for private businesses, industries have been left to decide on their own whether to keep some restrictions in place.

Amid uncertainty about whether COVID-19 could come roaring back, some businesses have chosen to keep vaccine mandates in place for customers — for now, at least. Here's where some of the city's key industries stand.

Broadway Theaters

Broadway's vaccine mandate, already scheduled to last until at least April 30, will remain in place, the Broadway League told Playbill last week.

The policy applies to all 41 Broadway theaters, for audience members, performers, backstage crew and theater staff. Masks are also required for audience members. Children age 5 or older also must be vaccinated, according to the policy.

Leaders of the Broadway League will consider whether to update the policy on April 1, president Charlotte St. Martin told Playbill.

Museums

The end of the city's vaccine mandate has already affected at least one notable museum.

After requiring proof of vaccination for months, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has updated its website to say only that "we strongly recommend vaccinations for our visitors." (Masks are still required for all patrons.)

Meanwhile, the Museum of Modern Art, American Museum of Natural History, Guggenheim Museum and Whitney Museum all still require proof of vaccination for visitors, according to their websites.

Sports Arenas

Madison Square Garden and the Barclays Center are both no longer checking for proof of vaccination or face masks, according to both arenas' websites. The Barclays Center says masks are still "recommended," however, and notes that individual event promoters could still choose to require vaccines or masks.

Outdoor stadiums like Yankee Stadium and Citi Field have not required proof of vaccination, so both will be largely unaffected by the recent policy change.

Restaurants

Privately owned restaurants may be the biggest remaining question mark, since it is up to each one to decide whether to keep enforcing a vaccine check.

Several restaurant employees told Grub Street that they were dismayed by the city's policy change, noting that they interact with hundreds of customers each day and that the city was just a few weeks removed from the peak of the omicron wave. Some owners, too, told Grub Street that they would continue enforcing the policy, such as the owner of the seafood spot Dame in Greenwich Village.

Some operators, meanwhile, seem more eager to dispense with the time-consuming process of checking each customer's status. Jeremy Wladis, who owns Upper West Side restaurants like Good Enough To Eat and Harvest Kitchen, told THE CITY that he was considering dropping the requirement unless his staff objected.

Meanwhile, the mask mandate that has governed the city's public schools for nearly two years was officially rescinded on Monday. (Children under 5 who are ineligible for the vaccine must still wear masks, however.)

"We are far from out of the woods, COVID is still here, but we are beating it back," Adams said at a news conference in Times Square on Monday.

This article originally appeared on the Midtown-Hell's Kitchen Patch