Dec 7, 2021: New York City announced Monday that all private-sector employers must implement the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for their workers, as the highly transferable Omicron variant has spread to at least a third of U.S. states.

The largest U.S. city has set a December 27 deadline for all 184,000 businesses within its borders to prove to their employees that they have been vaccinated. In addition, children between the ages of 5 and 11 must receive at least one dose of the vaccine by December 14 to enter restaurants and participate in extracurricular school activities, such as sports, bands, orchestras and dances Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

“Vaccination is the way out of this pandemic, and these are bold, first-in-the-nation measures to encourage New Yorkers to keep themselves and their communities safe,” de Blasio, who leaves office next month, said in a statement.

According to the city’s website, approximately 27% of children between the ages of 5 and 12 have received at least one dose and 15% have been fully vaccinated. The Greater New York Chamber of Commerce said it supported the extended mandate.

These requirements come at a time when new corona virus infections are on the rise across the country, especially in the northern states, as cold weather has encouraged more indoors and socialization. During the past week, the country averaged more than 120,000 new infections a day, a 64 percent increase over the previous week, according to Reuters.

The death toll from the infection has risen to an average of 1,300 a day in the past seven days, up from 800 a day a week ago, according to Reuters. The Delta variant is still part of 99.9% of new COVID cases in the United States, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Valensky told ABC News.

The latest variant Omicron, first detected last month in southern Africa, has spread around the globe and shows signs of being more contagious than the Delta variant.

Omicron cases have been found in 18 out of 50 US states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

Several Wall Street banks headquartered in New York, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup, already require vaccines for anyone coming into their offices. JPMorgan Chase & Co, the largest US bank, has so far allowed unvaccinated employees to come to work in offices if they submit to twice-weekly COVID-19 tests.