NYC Mayor's office asks New Yorkers who came in contact with Palin to get tested for COVID-19

New York City Mayor Eric Adams's (D) office has asked New Yorkers who have come in contact with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) to get tested for COVID-19.

A City Hall spokesperson urged "any New Yorker who came into contact with Ms. Palin to get tested," according to local news site Gothamist.

"Just as we encourage all New Yorkers to get tested regularly, especially those who believe they may have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19," the spokesperson added.

Palin has faced criticism after she was seen dining outdoors at Elio's, an Italian restaurant on Manhattan's Upper East Side, two days after testing positive for COVID-19. It is the same restaurant she dined indoors at on Saturday despite not being vaccinated.

She returned to the restaurant on Wednesday to apologize for the "fracas" that arose from her previous visit, Elio's manager Luca Guaitolini told CNN. She was then seated outdoors.

Guaitolini had previously told The New York Times that the restaurant "made a mistake" by failing to check Palin's vaccination card during her Saturday visit.

City Hall also blasted Palin in a statement on Monday, saying, "The key to NYC rules were put in place to protect all New Yorkers - including the small businesses that power our city's economy," NBC reported.

"Ms. Palin needs to respect small business workers and follow the rules just like everyone else," the statement continued.

The Hill has reached out to City Hall for comment.

The 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee is in New York City for a defamation lawsuit she filed against the Times. She claimed in the suit that the newspaper and its former editorial page editor, James Bennet, defamed her in a June 2017 opinion piece.

Palin announced that she had tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, the same day her defamation trial against the Times was set to begin. The trial has been delayed until early February as a result.