NEW YORK — New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he’s committed to keeping the city open as it grapples with yet another spike in coronavirus cases.
The Democratic mayor said Tuesday that New York can’t see schools and businesses closed again like the city did in 2020 when COVID-19 first spread widely.
De Blasio has faced questions over the past week about whether he would call for closures as a wave of new cases fueled by the omicron variant has broken over the city.
“Adamantly I feel this: No more shutdowns. We’ve been through them,” de Blasio said at a virtual news conference Tuesday. “They were devastating. We can’t go through it again.”
The mayor said the city is ramping up testing but the biggest tool to fight the pandemic remains getting people vaccinated. De Blasio announced the city would begin offering a $100 cash incentive to New Yorkers who get a booster shot of the COVID-19 vaccine starting Tuesday and going through the end of the year.
The city had previously offered similar incentives for people to get their first vaccine doses.
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