New York City is planning to Offer Covid-19 Vaccines to Tourists To Accelerate the Economy

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The Big Apple wants to implement vaccination points for tourists as its five counties seek to revive their economy after the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this Friday.

De Blasio described the program that would target tourists with free doses of Johnson & Johnson at popular attractions, leaving them with minimal immunization to enjoy their stay in the city and help jump-start the economy.

De Blasio says mobile bus vaccination units are ready to roll out as soon as this weekend in tourist spots ranging from the Empire State Building and Times Square to Brooklyn Bridge Park, the High Line, and Central Park, among others on standby. They are waiting for the green light of the government.

“Come here, it’s safe, it’s a great place to be, and we’re going to take care of you," the mayor said.

The push to vaccinate tourists comes as the city seeks to recuperate about $ 60 billion in economic contributions from tourism and nearly 90,000 jobs that were lost at the same time, according to state estimates. This includes hotels, attractions, shows, tours, gastronomy, and other sectors related to travel.

Broadway had a lot of ticket sales today after Cuomo gave the green light yesterday for a full-capacity reopening of theaters on Sept. 14, following a historic 18-month hiatus from the coronavirus.

Directly and indirectly, “more than 97 thousand workers depend on Broadway. The economic impact for the city is $ 14.8 billion dollars ”, it was commented in October, amid the uncertainty about the closure.

Impact of the coronavirus on the NCY economy

CDC/Unsplash

When the pandemic started, the city was declared “dead forever” by some citizens. Many local restaurants shuttered their doors, and Times Square went quiet for a long period of time. But then again NCY started to shine when it became the coronavirus epicenter of the world

According to an analysis released by the hospital trade group the Healthcare Association of New York State:

• New York state hospitals will face between $20-$25 billion in losses and new expenses through April 2021.
• State hospitals received approximately $9 billion in federal support through July, equating to an average recovery of just 35-45 cents on the dollar when compared to the $20-$25 billion fiscal impact.

The State Comptroller's Office presented a report stating that New York lost 67% of its visitors in 2020, in other words, it went from 66.6 million in 2019 to 22.3 million last year, in total, a drop of more than 44 million tourists.

The big apple The city went from raising $80.3 billion in 2019 to receiving $20.2 billion last year, which meant a loss of US $ 60 billion, which translates into a decrease of 75%.

Although the numbers have begun to slowly adjust in parallel with the vaccination process, for the State Comptroller's Office that will not happen until 2024 or even 2025. And, in fact, they explained that "it is unlikely that employees will be fully recovered before tourist spending does."

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