New York's Indoor Mask Mandate Ends For Businesses: Hochul

NEW YORK CITY — An indoor mask mandate for New York businesses will end Thursday amid a dramatic decline in COVID-19 cases, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced.

The policy shift comes as New York makes "tremendous progress" in the fight against the coronavirus with sharp drops in new cases, positivity and hospitalizations, the governor said Wednesday.

"New Yorkers, this is what we've been waiting for," Hochul said. "It is the right decision to lift this mandate for indoor businesses and let counties, cities and businesses to make their own decisions on what they want to do."

This ends a mask mandate that for the past two months required anyone entering a New York business without a strict vaccination rule to mask up.

Hochul enacted the mandate in December amid a winter surge of COVID-19, which hit an unprecedented peak of 90,000 cases in a single day as the omicron variant spread.

Daily cases in the state stood at 6,000 as of Tuesday, Hochul said. New York City's cases were roughly 1,600, state data shows.

Businesses can still require masking on their own, Hochul said.

And many places — health care facilities, subways, bus and train stations, and jails and prisons — will keep a statewide mask requirement, the governor said.

Masks will also be required in schools for the time being, but that soon could change, Hochul said.

Officials will reassess the school masking rule in March, after children return from spring break, the governor noted.

Hochul said students will receive at-home test kits before and after the break.

This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.