![]() (Massachusetts currently has the fifth highest vaccination rate in the country Rhode Island is first with 80.5 percent now vaccinated.) But earlier in the season, the rise of case counts and hospitalizations, along with questions about the potential impact of the omicron variant, caused some local governments and individual businesses to buckle in for another difficult winter.īelow, find a running list of local restaurants and entertainment venues requiring proof of vaccination for indoor dining, show attendance, or specific types of events. ![]() Now, as of late February 2022, nearly 78 percent of Massachusetts residents are fully vaccinated, a stark contrast to the vaccination rate of the United States as a whole, which is currently hovering around 65 percent. The least we can do is pay people more, check for proof of full vaccination, take temperatures at the door, and require masks indoors when not eating/drinking.” “We now have an opportunity to rebuild the industry to be a better, stronger one, starting one restaurant at a time. “The past year has taught us just how vulnerable are the lives of essential hospitality workers, just how broken the existing hospitality industry is when it comes to wages, benefits, and welfare,” Chang continued. Chang is the chef and owner of Pagu in Cambridge’s Central Square. “As small business operators we have a civic duty to take care of the health and safety of our guests and employees alike,” Tracy Chang told Eater in July 2021. Over the summer, in hopes of helping to protect staff and customers, a small but growing number of local restaurants and music venues started announcing that they would require proof of vaccination for indoor diners or show-goers. Proof-of-Vaccination Policies Are on the Rise in New York City. Boston, for example, reinstated an indoor mask mandate on August 27, 2021. An increasing number of cities again began recommending or even requiring that everyone - vaccinated or not - wear masks indoors or where social distancing is not possible. Charlie Baker said he was not planning on reissuing any statewide mask mandates or advisories, although rising case numbers due to the delta variant started causing some cities and towns to make their own calls both in Massachusetts (see Provincetown and Nantucket) and elsewhere around the country (such as Philadelphia and Los Angeles). While state and city guidelines and mandates have been ever-changing, some individual businesses have been requiring proof of vaccination even as far back as summer 2021.īack in late July 2021, nearly two months after Massachusetts lifted virtually all COVID-related requirements, Gov. (The latter number was around 7 percent at the time, Wu said.) By February 18, 2022, the city met all the benchmarks, and the mandate was lifted as planned. Massachusetts seemed to pass the peak of the omicron surge in late January, wastewater data suggests, and Wu announced on February 8, 2022, that Boston’s proof-of-vaccination rules would wind down as the city met certain benchmarks: Bed occupancy in Boston’s intensive care units had to fall below 95 percent, Boston had to see fewer than 200 COVID-19 hospitalizations per day, and the community positivity rate had to drop below 5 percent. (Boston and Brookline still require indoor masking at this time.) Salem dropped both its proof-of-vaccine mandate and indoor mask mandate on FebruBoston dropped its vaccine mandate on Februand Brookline followed on February 22, 2022. It was the first vaccine mandate of its kind in the Boston area, and Brookline and Salem quickly followed suit, with other communities, such as Cambridge and Somerville, initially signaling interest as well but later rejecting the idea. ![]() ![]() On December 20, 2021, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced a proof-of-vaccination mandate for many indoor spaces within the city of Boston - restaurants, gyms, theaters, and more - that took effect on January 15, 2022, while COVID-19 numbers, especially tied to the omicron variant, were on the rise in the city and beyond. ![]()
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