New York City will require all of its municipal workers including teachers and police officers to get coronavirus vaccines by mid-September or face weekly Covid-19 testing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced today.

The rule is expected to affect about 340,000 city employees, making the city one of the largest employers in the US to take such action, according to AP.

“This is about our recovery. This is about what we need to do to bring back New York City,” de Blasio said.

The move comes as the city battles a rise in Covid-19 cases fueled by the highly contagious Delta variant. Since the end of June, the daily average of new cases has increased by more than 300 per cent.