(Bloomberg) -- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he expects more businesses to ban customers who aren’t vaccinated against the coronavirus, seeing it as a way to prevent the upsurge of cases from triggering another round of restrictions.

De Blasio said he’s reluctant to re-impose a mask mandate in the nation’s biggest city because encouraging residents to get vaccinated is the crucial way to beat back the pandemic. He applauded a decision by restaurateur Danny Meyer, the chief executive officer of the Union Square Hospitality Group, to require customers to be vaccinated starting in September.

“This is a harbinger of things to come,” the mayor told reporters during a press briefing Thursday.

“I think you’re going to see in short order more and more activities will be only for vaccinated folks,” he said. He said there will be “more and more opportunity for people who are vaccinated and less and less for people who are not.”

The mayor’s comments come as the number of new Covid-19 cases in the city this week surpassed a 7-day daily average of 1,000 for the first time since early May. De Blasio is requiring that municipal employees be vaccinated or wear masks on the job and be subject to weekly testing.

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