New York City has expanded its array of Covid-19 mandates, setting vaccine requirements for children as young as five years old and for workers at all private-sector companies as the highly transmissible Omicron variant pushes into more US states, Reuters reports.

The most-populous US city set a December 27 deadline for all 184,000 businesses within its limits to make their employees show proof they have been vaccinated, Mayor Bill de Blasio said.

In addition, children five to 11 years old must get at least one dose by Dec 14 and those 12 and older need to be fully vaccinated by Dec 27 to enter restaurants and participate in extracurricular school activities, such as sports, band and dances.

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