Starting Jan. 3, people in Chicago will have to show proof of vaccination against COVID-19 to enter certain indoor spaces.

Proof of vaccination will be required at restaurants, fitness centers and indoor entertainment venues, the city's health department said Tuesday. The mandate applies to anyone 5 years and older.

Starting January 3rd, the City of Chicago will require patrons of certain indoor spaces to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

This decision is driven in part by the Omicron variant and is in line with requirements already in place in other big cities including NYC and LA.

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— Chicago Department of Public Health - CDPH (@ChiPublicHealth) December 21, 2021

The decision comes as the omicron variant spreads rapidly across the U.S.

President Joe Biden addressed the nation about the variant Tuesday. He said people who have been vaccinated and boosted should have sufficient protection from omicron.

"If you're not fully vaccinated, you have good reason to be concerned," Biden said. "You're at a high risk of getting sick."

Chicago's announcement comes one day after the mayor of Boston said vaccines would be required to enter indoor settings.

New York City and Los Angeles have similar vaccine mandates.

CINCINNATI —

As the parent of two Cincinnati public school students, Roger Jackson is curious to see if district leaders will require teachers to get vaccinated against COVID-19.

"We've never been through this type of thing before," Jackson said. "It's like just shoot and see what happens, you know what I mean."

Since a fully approved coronavirus vaccine is now part of the arsenal that could finally stop COVID-19 in its tracks, Jackson hopes teachers have to take the shot.

"Everybody's entitled to their own opinions and outcomes and what they choose to do," the father of two teenagers said. "But I feel like, you know, the kids and the teachers – because of their situation of being in such close contact every day -- I feel like they should."

Jackson's view is shared by members of CPS' Board Policy and Equity Committee.

"I think I’m inclined to support a vaccine requirement," committee member Ben Lindy said.

But Lindy isn't sure what a vaccine requirement for teachers and other workers in the district would look like.

"I think there are different choices about how we do it," Lindy said. "One is a blanket requirement. One is a requirement or a mask. One is a requirement or a test."

If board members do implement a requirement, Julie Sellers, president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers, wonders if it would apply to vaccine-eligible students 12 and older. Sellers also said she hopes vaccine reluctance won't lead to lost jobs.

"I don’t want to have to get into a legal battle over this," Sellers said. "I don’t want to go and have to justify this. But people have statutory rights on terminations."

That's one of many issues the board needs to consider quickly, since colder air will soon force students and teachers into closer quarters indoors.

"There is a reason, medically, there's a reason seasonally, to be focused on it," committee member Eve Bolton said.

After meeting Thursday, CPS' Board Policy and Equity Committee will meet again Sept. 13. That's when a vote on a vaccine requirement for CPS staff members could happen, meaning first shots would be required to go into teachers' arms as soon as the first day of October.

Hospital administrators in Greater Cincinnati do not know how many staff and volunteers are already vaccinated against COVID-19, officials said Tuesday, just days after announcing they would require them to get the shot this fall.

“We simply don’t know,” said Mercy Health's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Stephen Feagins. “Many vaccines were given certainly by us to employees, but there are many sites of vaccination: pharmacies, mass vaccinations sites.”

Last week, all six hospital systems from our area said they will require staff and volunteers to get the vaccine.

University of Cincinnati Medical Center created the pilot program to vaccinate workers. Spokesperson Amanda Nageleisen said the team built the program quickly to slow the virus. Because they were treating staff as patients, those records are now private.

Nageleisen says UC Medical Center knows how many doses it administered when the vaccine was available to only healthcare workers. She says that data indicated a high number of staff vaccinated. However, she says when the vaccine became available to the general public, administrators were unable to decipher which patients were healthcare workers and which were part of the general public.

Doctors say they’ll have data when mandates kick in this fall and employees are required to report their status.

“There are a lot, a lot of individuals who would actually prefer to work in an environment where they know everyone is vaccinated,” said Dr. Feagins.

Health and Human Services requested that hospitals report the number weekly starting Jan. 13. WCPO was still waiting for Greater Cincinnati data as of late Tuesday afternoon.

WCPO asked Mercy Health, Tri-Health, Christ Hospital, University of Cincinnati, and UC Children’s if they have followed guidance to report it but did not immediately hear back.

“Asking people for vaccine cards is going to take time,” said Dominic Mendiola.

Mendiola is a labor representative for the Ohio Nurses Association. The union represents 1,700 nurses at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. The local chapter there is called the Registered Nurses Association of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

“We’re surveying our members to try to see voluntarily who wants to disclose to us who is vaccinated,” said Mendiola. So far, 70 percent of survey respondents are vaccinated, he said.