Restaurants in Philadelphia will be required starting Jan. 3 to turn away dine-in customers and employees who’ve not been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or found to be free of coronavirus in tests administered no more than 24 hours beforehand.
As of Jan. 17, the threshold will be raised through the elimination of the testing option. Starting that date, only fully vaccinated guests and staff members—individuals who have received two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna formulas, or one of the Johnson & Johnson version—will be permitted to enter a foodservice establishment.
The only exceptions will be children up to age 11. Those who are less than 5 years and 3 months old are exempt from the vaccine requirement altogether. Youngsters ranging from that age up to age 11 must have at least one vaccination shot by Jan. 17, and both by Feb. 3.
Convenience stores, supermarkets and some institutional feeding operations are exempted.
The requirement, issued by civic and health leaders on Monday, is intended to avert another wintertime flare-up of new COVID cases like the surge that packed hospitals and triggered restaurant re-shutdowns last winter. The officials noted that Philadelphia already has one of the highest vaccination rates in the state.
The city becomes the latest jurisdiction to impose new protocols for slowing the spread of coronavirus, particularly the delta and omicron variants. On Monday, the state of New York adopted a mask-or-vax requirement for all indoor spaces. Restaurants are now required either to demand proof of vaccination from dine-in guests and staff or mandate that they wear masks while not eating and drinking.
The announcement from city hall did not reveal what penalty will be imposed on businesses that fail to comply with the safety measures.
New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New Orleans have had a vaccine mandate in place for a number of weeks. Outgoing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced that he’s extending the vaccine mandate within his city to children aged 2 to 5, since federal health officials have given the OK for those youngsters to get inoculated.
Big Apple restaurants have complained that the new requirement will put a crimp in holiday sales, coming as it did as families were already arriving in the city for a holiday visit. Operators voiced concerns that the arriving families may not have gotten the kids vaccinated because they did not know that protocol would be required.
The moves come as the national count of new COVID cases is soaring again. Yesterday, health officials reported that 119,300 Americans had just tested positive for the ailment, a 43% leap from the average number for the prior 14 days. Deaths totaled just under 1,300, a 32% increase.
Federal officials say the total U.S. tally of deaths from COVID-19 is about to hit 800,000, the highest number for any country.
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