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Mayor Bill de Blasio urged onFriday that New York City’s pri-vate businesses require theirworkers to get vaccinated againstthe coronavirus and signaled thathe would introduce similar meas-ures for hundreds of thousands ofmunicipal employees.

The mayor’s comments camejust days after he announced thatall employees in the public hospi-tal system would have to either re-ceive a virus vaccine or submit toweekly testing.

The move reflected growingconcern that New York, like muchof the United States, is on theverge of another wave of the pan-demic. In just a few weeks, casecounts in the city have tripled, tomore than 650 a day on average,while inoculation rates have lev-eled off.

“If people want freedom, if peo-ple want jobs, if people want to liveagain, we have got to get morepeople vaccinated,” Mr. de Blasiosaid on Friday during a weekly ra-dio appearance on WNYC. “Andobviously it’s time for whatevermandates we can achieve.”

“I’m calling upon all New YorkCity employers, including our pri-vate hospitals: Move immediatelyto some form of mandate, what-ever the maximum you feel youcan do,” he added.

Across the country, govern-ment officials and private busi-nesses have increasingly debatedwhether to require vaccinations,as the highly contagious Deltavariant of the virus surges inmany regions. Still, moves toadopt such measures have beenlimited.

Some hospitals and health caresystems, including NewYork-Presbyterian and Trinity Health,have announced vaccine man-

NEW YORK MAYORURGES EMPLOYERSTO REQUIRE SHOTS

WAVE OF NEW INFECTIONS

Spread of Delta VariantLeads to a Push forVaccine Mandates

This article is by Michael Gold,Emma G. Fitzsimmons and MichaelD. Shear.

Continued on Page A13

MIAMI — A month ago, thenumber of Covid-19 patients ad-mitted at two University of Flor-ida hospitals in Jacksonville wasdown to 14. Now more than 140people are hospitalized with thecoronavirus, a tenfold increaseover five weeks — and the highestnumber of Covid-19 patients thissystem has seen during the pan-demic.

Debra Wells, 65, was amongthose admitted to one of the hospi-tals this month when what shethought was a cold grew worseand worse until she could notbreathe. “I said, ‘Lord, I feel likeI’m dying,’” she recalled.

Like most of the patients whohospital officials say they are ad-mitting in Jacksonville and otherfast-filling medical facilities inpockets around the country, Ms.Wells was unvaccinated. She hadworried, she said, that the shotswere not safe.

“I was misinformed,” Ms. Wellssaid this week, after a five-dayhospital stay. “I wasn’t ready, andI was scared.”

A national uptick in coronaviruscases has led, in sudden and con-

cerning fashion, to a steep rise inhospitalizations in some spotsaround the country where peoplehave been slower to get vacci-nated, a predicament expertshoped might be avoided becausethe people contracting the infec-tion tend to be younger andhealthier.

Nationally, hospitalizations re-main relatively low, nowhere nearearlier peaks of the pandemic. Butin some regions with lagging vac-cination rates and rising viruscases — such as northeasternFlorida, southwestern Missouriand southern Nevada — thehighly contagious Delta varianthas flooded intensive care unitsand Covid-19 wards that, not longago, had seen their patient countsshrink.

At the two hospitals in Jack-sonville, the number of Covid-19patients is higher than last sum-

Covid Patients Inundate I.C.U.sAs Inoculations Lag in Florida

By PATRICIA MAZZEI


Influx Suddenly StrainsHospitals That Had

Seen Cases Fall

CAP-HAÏTIEN, Haiti — Heck-led by protesters and surroundedby phalanxes of heavily armedguards, foreign diplomats andHaitian politicians attended thefuneral of Haiti’s assassinatedpresident on Friday, a tense eventthat laid bare a fractured nation’sproblems instead of providing anopportunity for healing.

Less than a half-hour into thefuneral, foreign dignitaries includ-ing an American delegation led bythe U.S. ambassador to the UnitedNations, Linda Thomas-Green-field, departed over safety con-cerns set off by gunshots fired out-side the event. White House offi-cials said that the delegationmembers were safe and that theyhad flown back to the UnitedStates, cutting the trip short.

The funeral was held in the fam-ily compound of the assassinatedpresident, Jovenel Moïse, just out-side the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, with grandstands erected

inside an arena around a centralstage, dressed with white curtainsand flowers, where his coffin wasset, covered in a Haitian flag andguarded by four men in militaryuniforms.

Though the setting was serene,the tensions that had rocked thestreets the afternoon beforeleaked quickly into the ceremony.

A line of Mr. Moïse’s supportersstood by the entrance to the fu-neral and yelled at arriving poli-ticians: “Justice for Jovenel!”

When Haiti’s national policechief, Leon Charles, arrived, thecrowd surged around him anderupted into shouting and fingerpointing. As he passed the grand-stand of invited guests, manythere also jumped to their feet toshout their displeasure.

“He killed the president!”yelled Marie Michelle Nelcifor,adding she believed Mr. Moïsehad telephoned Mr. Charles while

As Haitian President Is Buried,Protests Blame Elites in Killing

By CATHERINE PORTER

Guarding the coffin of Jovenel Moïse, Haiti’s slain president.FEDERICO RIOS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES


TOKYO — The athletesmarched into the arena maskedand waving exuberantly. Dancersin pastel costumes and hatsclapped and moved their arms inthe air to whip up excitement. Butthere were no fans and no cheer-ing audience — only row upon rowof mostly empty seats stretchinginto the reaches of the vastOlympic Stadium in central To-kyo.

A year after originally sched-uled, the opening ceremony of the32nd Summer Olympics unfoldedin the midst of a tenacious pan-demic, with attendance limited tofewer than 1,000 dignitaries andother invited guests in a stadiumbuilt to seat 68,000.

The Japanese public has grownexhausted with the pandemic andhas widely opposed the Games.But the ceremony tried to projecta world moving on from more thana year of doing battle with the vi-rus, as confetti doves fell from thesky and a rendition of “Imagine”on Jumbotrons reverberatedthrough the huge stadium withperformances by Angélique Kidjo,John Legend and Keith Urban.

The organizers sprinkled tradi-tional Japanese culture throughthe festivities, staging whatlooked like a typical summer festi-val with lanterns and a taikodrumming soundtrack as well asan excerpt from a famous Kabukiplay.

Yet in other ways they em-braced a more modern outlook,selecting Naomi Osaka, Japan’smost famous athlete, to light theOlympic cauldron, and RuiHachimura, the basketball starwho plays for the WashingtonWizards, as one of the flag bearersfor Japan. They are just two of sev-eral mixed-race athletes who arerepresenting a largely homo-

geneous Japan at the Olympics.Although some competitions

started earlier this week, the cere-mony on Friday represented theofficial start of the Olympics, withmore than 11,000 athletes from205 countries expected to partici-pate in 33 sports over the next twoweeks.

Nearly all of the events, like theopening ceremony, will be heldwithout spectators, and the ath-letes will compete under strictprotocols that limit their move-ment.

Usually it is the Olympians whoface considerable odds, but thistime it was also the organizerswho waged an uphill battle to getto this moment. What was meantto be a showcase of Japan’s gleam-ing efficiency, superior serviceculture and appeal as a touristdestination has instead beenswamped by infection fears andhost committee scandals.

Tokyo Olympics Open at Last,With Somber Air and No Fans

By MOTOKO RICH

Attendance at the opening ceremony was limited to fewer than 1,000 dignitaries and other guests in a stadium built to seat 68,000.JAMES HILL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron.HIROKO MASUIKE/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page D6SURGE Hospitalizations are trending upward in 45 states, straininghealth care centers in parts of the Midwest, West and South. PAGE A10

THIS WEEKEND

Experts say pressures from heat anddrought have pushed the state’s storiedfisheries close to collapse. PAGE A9

NATIONAL A9-17

Crisis for Montana’s Trout

Tig Notaro’s stand-up special took audiorecorded during live performances,then combined it with animation. Thatsometimes pushed the humor furtherthan she expected. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

A Comedian’s Laugh LinesAcross the United States, entrepreneursare appropriating the baby shower, anevent previously reserved for expectantparents, usually mothers. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-5

Rise of the ‘Business Shower’

To be freed from a conservatorship, thepop star is likely to undergo a psychiat-ric evaluation. The evaluation processis an uneasy melding of legal standardsand mental health criteria. PAGE C1

Testing Britney SpearsA virus surge is causing companies toreconsider when they’ll require employ-ees to return, and whether they’ll re-quire them to be vaccinated. PAGE B1

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Two decades after a draft sequence ofthe human genome was unveiled, ateam has deciphered it all. PAGE A17

Scientists Finish DNA Puzzle

When the coronavirus hit Singapore,Joan Poh juggled a return to hospitalwork with getting ready for the TokyoGames. The Saturday Profile. PAGE A4

INTERNATIONAL A4-8

Nurse. Rower. Olympian.

In a unanimous vote by lawmakers, thecountry became the latest in Africa toabolish the death penalty. PAGE A7

Sierra Leone Bans Executions

A proposal by Democrats to beef up theInternal Revenue Service so the agencycan catch tax evaders has reopeneddeep wounds for Republicans. PAGE B1

Grudge Sets Back I.R.S. Plan

Despite or because of his complicatedupbringing, Nyjah Huston has becomea world champion. PAGE D3

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A Skateboarder’s Odyssey

Jamelle Bouie PAGE A19

OPINION A18-19

KABUL, Afghanistan — U.S.military aircraft struck a numberof Taliban positions this week insupport of faltering Afghan gov-ernment forces, in one of the firstsignificant American reactions tothe insurgents’ blistering advanceacross Afghanistan as U.S. troopswithdraw.

At least one of the strikes wasagainst Taliban positions in thekey southern city of Kandahar,slowing an advance that threat-ened to take over the city.

The Taliban called the strikes“disobedience” to last year’s with-drawal agreement with the Amer-icans, and they warned of unspeci-fied “consequences” — an indica-tion that the airstrikes had an im-pact on the insurgent group.

The scale and pace of the Tal-

iban advance has provoked alarmamong top U.S. military and civil-ian officials in recent days. TheTaliban now threaten most of Af-ghanistan’s 34 provincial capitalsand even Kabul, the national capi-

tal. The group has overrun morethan half of the country’s 400-odddistricts, in many cases seizingthem without a fight, since it be-gan its offensive in earnest in May.

This week’s airstrikes, whichtook place Wednesday and Thurs-day, reflect both the level of Amer-ican worry and the Afghan mili-tary’s continued need for U.S. airsupport, as Washington attemptsto end nearly 20 years of war in

Alarmed by Taliban’s Surge, U.S. Launches 11th-Hour AirstrikesBy ADAM NOSSITERand ERIC SCHMITT

Afghan Forces Reel inFace of an Offensive


WASHINGTON — Biden ad-ministration health officials in-creasingly think that vulnerablepopulations will need boostershots even as research continuesinto how long the coronavirus vac-cines remain effective.

Senior officials now say they ex-pect that people who are 65 andolder or who have compromisedimmune systems will most likelyneed a third shot from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, two vac-cines based on the same technol-ogy that have been used to inocu-late the vast majority of Ameri-cans thus far. That is a sharp shiftfrom just a few weeks ago, whenthe administration said it thoughtthere was not enough evidence toback boosters yet.

On Thursday, a key official atthe Centers for Disease Controland Prevention said the agency isexploring options to give patientswith compromised immune sys-tems third doses even before reg-ulators broaden the emergencyuse authorization for coronavirusvaccines, a step that could comesoon for the Pfizer vaccine.

Dr. Amanda Cohn, the chiefmedical officer of the C.D.C.’s im-munizations division, told an advi-sory committee to the agency thatofficials were “actively lookinginto ways” to provide certain peo-ple access to booster shots “earli-er than any potential change inregulatory decisions.”

“So stay tuned,” she added.The growing consensus within

the administration that at leastsome Americans will need abooster is tied in part to researchsuggesting that the Pfizer vaccineis less effective against the co-ronavirus after about six months.More than half of those fully vacci-nated in the United States so farhave received Pfizer’s vaccine, intwo doses administered threeweeks apart.

Pfizer’s continuing global studyof its clinical trial participantsshows that four to six months af-ter the second dose, the vaccine’seffectiveness against symptomat-ic infection drops from a high of 95

Biden AdvisersExpect BoosterWill Be Needed

Studies Show VaccinesWeaken Over Time

By SHARON LaFRANIERE


Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,129 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 24, 2021

Today, sunny, high 83. Tonight, be-coming cloudy, showers late, low 70.Tomorrow, clouds and sunshine,showers, thunderstorms, humid,high 85. Weather map, Page A16.

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