A health inspector performing random coronavirus compliance checks was reportedly refused entry to a bar in Staten Island because she apparently did not provide proof of vaccination.
Bar manager Maggie Koronilian told the New York Post Friday she removed the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene worker from Big Nose Kate’s Saloon and Eatery during the alleged incident Tuesday.
“I don’t understand how you’re coming here enforcing something and not cooperating with the very thing that you’re trying to enforce,” she said of the city’s Key to NYC rules imposed on bars and restaurants.
Enforcement of New York City’s “Key to NYC” Pass began in September, requiring places such as restaurants and gyms to discriminate against unvaccinated people by denying them entry.
Koronilian told the Post the inspector arrived at the bar on Tuesday carrying her official identification.
“She said, ‘I’m here to do a COVID inspection,’ so I asked to see her vaccination card, as we do for anyone who comes here,” Koronilian recalled.
The woman allegedly said no, saying that was what she was there to check and noting she was not there to stay for a meal.
Koronilian claimed she told the woman she must be “checked just like everybody else” if she wished to enter.
“I asked her a few times to show it to me before I told her, ‘Listen, we better go outside,'” Koronilian continued.
Outside, the inspector checked that the bar’s papers were in compliance with the rules.
“As she’s looking through the paperwork, I just looked at her and I said, ‘You know, you’re not above the law,'” Koronilian commented, adding she meant to refer to the mandate.
“She asked, ‘What law?’ and I pointed to the vaccination signs hung on the front of the bar and said, ‘This bulls–t,'” Koronilian told the Post regarding the alleged incident.
“I have my notices on the door so I am 100 percent in compliance and doing everything to the ‘T,’” she stated, continuing, “We’re not happy doing it, but we’re doing everything that’s required.”
“And that means that anybody that comes in — whether a customer or an inspector — has to follow the mandate,” she noted.
In a social media post on Friday, Big Nose Kate’s addressed the reported situation and thanked those who gave positive feedback.
“It was done because we feel if you are going to enforce these ridiculous mandates then you must also follow these ridiculous mandates,” the post read:
Meanwhile, a spokesperson with the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene told the Post “the inspector was able to complete this Key to NYC inspection and found this establishment to be in compliance.”
However, the individual did not explain why the inspector reportedly failed to show her own vaccination card but noted she had to have been vaccinated to be working.
“Employees of the City of New York are required to be vaccinated, and health inspectors interacting with the public are vaccinated against COVID-19,” the spokesperson told the outlet.