New York City Plans To Phase Out Vaccine Mandate, Allowing Kyrie Irving To Return For Home Games

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New York City Plans To Phase Out Vaccine Mandate, Allowing Kyrie Irving To Return For Home Games

Brooklyn Nets point guard Kyrie Irving has not been able to play in home games at Barclays Center this season due to New York City’s vaccine mandate, but now he might return to the court. On Wednesday, New York City mayor Eric Adams expressed to reporters and said he “can’t wait” to phase out the mask and vaccine mandates.

Adams wasn’t clear on when the mandate will be lifted but he shared, he does not want to do anything that will “jeopardize closing down the city again,” and will disclose more specifics about the plan in the coming days.

NEW YORK, NY – JUNE 26: Kyrie Irving attends the “Uncle Drew” New York Premiere on June 26, 2018 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)

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The reporter asked Adams, “Boston, Philadelphia and Washington D.C. are all in the process, or already have phased out the vaccine passports for entering indoor spaces. Does New York have a plan to do that? Do you have metrics to do that? Will it be phased out soon like those other cities?” He replied, “Yes, and I can’t wait to get it done. I take my hat off to New Yorkers. Through masks, vaccines, through social distancing.

“We were hit with the uncertainty, the fear of COVID. I’m really proud of how we responded as New Yorkers. Every morning I meet with my health professionals — I always say that I’m gonna follow the science. I’m not gonna get ahead of the science. Because I’m ready to get ahead of all of this and get ready to a level of normality, but they’re giving us clear instructions, they gave us benchmarks and we’re gonna follow those benchmarks.”

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“I look forward to the next few weeks of going through a real transformation that I don’t have to wonder what you look like. I will know what you look like again. We are moving in the right direction, we’re going to do it in a safe way, because all of these experts will tell you the same thing: We can’t close down again. We can’t close down again. I’m not going to do something out of my anticipation to get back that will jeopardize closing down the city again.

“Our economy can’t handle it. We don’t have another 11 billion dollars to put back in the economy. We must do it in a smart way, and people are gonna look back later and say, ‘you know, he made the right decisions.’ We’re gonna get the city back up and operating, and we’re gonna be rolling out some things in the next day or so about how we’re going to carry that out.”

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