New York Stock Exchange says it will ease trading floor restrictions

The New York Stock Exchange said Friday it will begin allowing more traders and employees back onto its famed trading floor in lower Manhattan based on rising vaccination rates.

Officials at the Big Board said that beginning Monday they will allow fully vaccinated traders to remove face coverings at their desks inside its iconic trading pit located at 11 Wall St., which got shut down last March amid a coronavirus outbreak and was reopened two months later under tight restrictions. If all staff at a trading desk are vaccinated, the firm will be allowed to increase its headcount. Everyone will still be required, however, to social distance and wear a mask when walking around the floor, NYSE said.