Boston's Be Together Vaccine Policy Takes Effect for Businesses and City Workers

BOSTON — July 22, 2026 — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu launched the city's Be Together indoor vaccine requirement Monday at Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury, marking the first day proof of vaccination is required to enter restaurants, bars, and gyms across the city. Wu said 17,435 municipal employees had met the workforce vaccination deadline as of 10 a.m., a jump of nearly 700 workers in the preceding week, with individual outreach to non-compliant workers set to begin after the holiday on Tuesday. No businesses have been fined under the new rule, which opens with an education-first enforcement phase. Boston City Council President Ed Flynn, appearing alongside Wu, said he believed some of the escalating intensity of protests outside Wu's home reflected anti-Asian sentiment in the country. Wu said Boston was at a 32 percent community COVID positivity rate the prior week and that hospitals were already pushing back elective surgeries due to severe COVID cases crowding ICU and emergency room beds — "every bit of delay that we see now," Wu said, "is creating ripple effects later on for all of us."