Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) on Wednesday announced a new Covid-19 vaccine mandate for businesses in her city, saying at a press conference that unvaccinated residents held the city’s future in their hands.

The new rules require a range of private establishments — including restaurants, bars, movie theaters, and fitness centers — to begin demanding proof of vaccination status from their customers, and to refuse service for those who are unvaccinated.

“These are the places that are the most risky places for spread, which is why we’re focused on them,” Lightfoot said at the press conference announcing the mandate. “This order will remain in effect until the city deems that the threat of COVID-19 to public health as diminished significantly.”

She added: “Talk to everybody you know who’s unvaccinated. Our future is gonna depend on whether they stop being hesitant and get the vaccine. … It really depends upon the actions that people take here and now. We are in another crisis.”

And in a separate message published on Twitter, she addressed unvaccinated Americans directly, saying their time was “up.”

To put it simply, if you have been living vaccine-free, your time is up. If you wish to live life as w/the ease to do the things you love, you must be vax’d.

This health order may pose an inconvenience to the unvaccinated, and in fact it is inconvenient by design.

— Mayor Lori E. Lightfoot (@chicagosmayor) December 21, 2021

The move made Chicago the first city this week to institute a broad vaccine mandate. Washington, D.C. on Tuesday followed Chicago’s lead with an announcement that it was instituting the same measures, just a day after Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) re-instituted the city’s indoor mask mandate. Bowser said those measures would remain in place at least until the end of January.

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