NEW YORK (AP) — A group of New York City restaurants is asking a judge to block the city’s latest effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. The lawsuit calls the city’s mandate that customers show proof of vaccination “arbitrary, irrational, unscientific and unlawful.” The group argued that the new rules would severely harm their businesses and livelihood. The city’s proof-of-vaccination edict went into effect Tuesday and requires anyone dining indoors at restaurants, going to museums, attending concerts, working out at a gym or entering many indoor public venues to show proof that they have been inoculated against COVID-19. Mayor Bill de Blasio is defending the mandate as a necessary step to help control the fast-spreading delta variant.
Photo: A restaurant employee carries a tray on the sidewalk outside several of Manhattan’s Upper West Side restaurants as patrons eat, Monday, May 17, 2021, in New York. Vaccinated New Yorkers can shed their masks in most situations Wednesday, and restaurants, shops, gyms and many other businesses can go back to full occupancy if all patrons are inoculated. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
