Philly businesses brace for vaccine mandates | Business Weekly Newsletter
Philly will require proof of vaccination for indoor dining, and other news.
![A customer at Martha shows his vaccination card on July 31, 2021. Proof of vaccination is needed to dine inside. Patrons without proof can still dine outside.](https://www.inquirer.com/resizer/LZARCjb-ueaj-wAxZRV28TB0Pp0=/760x507/smart/filters:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/MLMTB2ZKDZH3VG666NKPME3YII.jpg)
If you’re visiting Philly next month, bring your vaccination card. You’ll need it to enter bars, restaurants, arenas, and more under the city’s new vaccine mandate.
Philly’s vax requirement starts Jan. 3, the day before President Joe Biden’s broader vaccine rules are scheduled to take effect. There’s still uncertainty about the federal mandate’s future, frustrating some local businesses.
Of course, many businesses have already required vaccination on their own. If you’re one of them, email me back here and tell me how customers and employees have responded.
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— Christian Hetrick (@_Hetrick, businessweekly@inquirer.com)
Philly’s vaccine mandate will generally apply wherever “you can eat together indoors,” Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said Monday. That includes cafes, catering halls, movie theaters, and bowling alleys. A full list of which businesses are affected or exempt can be found here.
Those businesses have a few weeks to prepare for enforcement. But companies with more than 100 workers have already braced for mandates, following Biden’s order last month. Almost 80% of Philadelphia-area private sector workers, or 1.8 million employees, would fall under the Biden mandate, according to an analysis by my colleague Bob Fernandez.
But Biden’s rules are still being challenged in court, putting everything on hold. Most legal experts expect lawsuits seeking to block the federal mandate to ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. That’s not going to happen anytime soon.
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