Quick Notes: New York City's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for athletes to be lifted Thursday

According to ESPN, it looks like New York City's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for all athletes will be lifted today. From the ESPN article:

New York Mayor Eric Adams will lift the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate on athletes Thursday, paving the way for Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving to play at the Barclays Center on Sunday and for unvaccinated New York Yankees and Mets players to play in their April home openers, sources familiar with the situation told ESPN on Wednesday.

The rollback of the mandate that has applied to all private businesses in the city would cover professional athletes and performers. It would come on the heels of discussions that had given hope to NBA and MLB teams that the long-awaited move would come to fruition.

ESPN

As it stands, unvaccinated New York Mets and Yankees players will still be unable to play games in Toronto. The Yankees play ten games there this year and, if we had to guess, the Yankees and Blue Jays will be separated by fewer than ten games in the standings one way or the other for most of the season, so good luck without your big slugger in some critical contests, guys.

Adams, who was sworn in Jan. 1 and has eased the city's COVID-19 policies since, said Tuesday: "Baseball, basketball, businesses -- they have to wait until that layer [of progress] comes."

The official announcement will be made at 11:30 pm ET at City Field in New York City.