New York isn't the only coastal American city no longer requiring local professional athletes to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, as the San Francisco Department of Public Health confirmed to KCBS Radio on Friday it quietly lifted its own mandate last month.
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A day after New York City exempted city-based entertainers and players on its sports teams from its private sector vaccination mandate, a San Francisco public health spokesperson told KCBS Radio in a Friday email that home players, performers and staff at indoor mega events – like Golden State Warriors games at Chase Center – have been able to prevent a negative coronavirus test result instead of proof of vaccination for more than a month.
Starting next month, they won't need to provide either when the city aligns with California no longer requiring vaccine or negative test verification for indoor events with at least 1,000 people.
The city first updated its requirements for local performers on Jan. 27, the spokesperson said, modifying the health order to allow for home players, performers and staff to provide a religious or medical exemption and a negative COVID-19 test "as an alternative to proof of vaccination and booster requirements" beginning on Feb. 1. San Francisco made the change the same day it allowed people in gyms, offices and other indoor settings to remove masks where everyone is fully vaccinated.
Starting Feb. 16, the exemption was removed, allowing unvaccinated players, performers and staff to provide a negative test on the same day attendees were allowed to do the same. San Francisco modified its health order on Feb. 9, the same day the vast majority of Bay Area counties lifted indoor mask mandates.
Neither press release about the health order's changes mentioned the modification for local professional athletes. After New York City exempted athletes and entertainers on Thursday, KCBS Radio noticed San Francisco's health order explainer no longer included language requiring local "professional basketball players and others performing in indoor events of 1,000 or more people" to be fully vaccinated.
Last fall, New York City and San Francisco became the first two cities in the country to require proof of vaccination for indoor sporting events. The mandates differed in specifics, and New York City went even further in December when it required all in-person workers to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
An NBA player in each city publicly said they wouldn't: Brooklyn Nets star point guard Kyrie Irving, and Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins.
Irving remains unvaccinated, and the Nets relented on allowing him to play in road games outside of New York City and Toronto – travelers must be fully vaccinated to enter Canada – in December after a COVID-19 outbreak and injuries diminished their roster. Soon after his return, Nets players, coaches and executives started publicly saying they hoped Irving would be allowed to play in home games.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said on Feb. 28 "it would send the wrong message" to only exempt Irving when a number of city employees were fired for refusing to get vaccinated. Adams is now facing criticism from labor unions and New Yorkers for exempting professional athletes and entertainers from the mandate on Thursday, following weeks of speculation a number of unvaccinated New York Mets and Yankees players couldn't play in home games.
Wiggins, meanwhile, reluctantly received a single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, telling reporters he felt he had no choice. The 26-year-old told the Mercury News last month that he "still" wished hadn't been vaccinated, but it "worked out for the best" in a season in which he appeared in his first NBA All-Star Game.
"I'm here on the most exciting team in the league," Wiggins said last month. "I'm an All-Star. So I feel like I made the right choice at the end of the day."
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