NY 'Mask Or Vax' Mandate Dropped; No Decision On Schools: Hochul

LONG ISLAND, NY — Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that she is suspending the mask-or-vaccination mandate for all indoor public spaces in New York as of Thursday.

Hochul said businesses and local municipalities would have the authority to keep the mandate in place, despite the statewide measure being lifted.

The mask mandate will remain in schools until at least early March, she said.

"This pandemic is not over," Hochul said, adding that the No. 1 question she hears is when mask are coming off for kids in schools.

Hochul said the mask mandate in school was instituted to get kids back to school safely. Now, with the winter break coming up, many will be traveling. When the kids come back, test kits will be handed out; parents are asked to test kids on their first day back and then again three days later; if kids test positive, they should be kept home. By Friday of that week, the state will look at the numbers.

During the first week in March, Hochul said, the state will make an assessment based on metrics.

When asked why New York was not giving a date for that decision, Hochul said she believes the timing was "close" and all metrics would be considered. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said their school mask mandate would be lifted March 7, and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that their mandate would be lifted Feb. 28. But Hochul said that if kids come back to school and the numbers are still low on Friday, March 4, it was "a very strong possibility" that the mandate could be lifted on March 7.

The "mask or vaccination" mandate, which went into effect in December, will be lifted for indoor businesses based on the decline in case numbers, Hochul said. "The trends are very, very positive," she said.

There has been a 93 percent drop in new cases in New York, now at 6,000 compared with 90,000 a month ago. The statewide positivity rate stands at 3.67 percent, down from 23 percent on Jan. 2. A 63 percent drop in hospitalizations has taken place, with 4,600 now hospitalized compared with 12,000 on Jan. 12, she said. There are 32 new cases per 100,000 today, compared with 381 per 100,000 at the peak of the omicron variant's emergence.

The mandate will remain in effect for places with vulnerable populations including schools, nursing homes, correctional facilities, homeless and domestic violence shelters, and on public transportation, Hochul said.

The mask-or-vaccination mandate requirement was put in place at workplaces and businesses since December, when the state first learned about the omicron variant.

The statewide mask mandate remained in effect after an appeals court judge issued a stay following a ruling by a Nassau County Supreme Court judge that declared Hochul's mask protocols to be unconstitutional.

The legal proceedings are continuing, but Hochul said Wednesday she felt confident the state would be victorious and the governor and health department had the right to protect residents.

An amicus brief had been filed in the mask dispute by a number of districts on Long Island protesting the mandate, including Shoreham-Wading River, Locust Valley, Massapequa, Island Trees, Connetquot, Lindenhurst, Plainedge and Hauppauge.

Amid the confusion regarding the mandate, parents, students and community members held anti-mask rallies at school districts across Long Island.

The decision overturning mask protocols came after new Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed a trio of executive orders allowing school districts to end the mask mandates if they chose to do so.

Hochul has faced pushback from many who want kids to be unmasked in schools immediately. Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Shirley) spoke out: “Her power trip never ends, and while her illegal mask mandate on adults is now ending, she remains hellbent on totally controlling the lives of our children. The emperor governor should remove all of her COVID mandates today!"

New York Acting Commissioner of Health Dr. Mary Bassett reminded that the number of pediatric hospitalizations due to unvaccinated children was a concern during the weeks when the omicron variant spread, and said it was important to get children vaccinated. Hochul agreed and said she hopes a vaccine for children under 5 will be approved soon.