NEW YORK — While the Yankees expressed confidence about unvaccinated players being able to be on the field on Opening Day, the city government is singing a different tune.
New York City health commissioner Ashwin Vasan said that the private sector mandate will remain in place “indefinitely” and that there were no health benchmarks for infections, hospitalizations and deaths for which the mandate would be suspended.
“I think it’s indefinite at this point,” he said. “You know, people who have tried to predict what’s going to happen in the future for this pandemic have repeatedly found egg on their face.”
The mandate began under former mayor Bill de Blasio and requires private employers such as the Yankees and Mets to enforce vaccination mandates on employees.
On Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams said the city would eventually “peel back” some vaccine mandates that would prohibit members of New York’s two baseball teams from playing games at home.
Unvaccinated players on visiting teams would be allowed to participate in games at Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.
With Canada banning unvaccinated players, unvaccinated members of the Yankees — as the New York City rules stand now — would miss 93 games, including games against the Mets and Blue Jays while unvaccinated members of the Mets would miss 81 games.