Announcement On 'Mask-Or-Vax' Mandate Wednesday: Hochul

LONG ISLAND, NY — Gov. Kathy Hochul said she will have news Wednesday about a mask-or-vaccination mandate for all indoor public spaces that went into effect in December in New York.

On Monday, Hochul said the statewide positivity rate stood at 4.2 percent; Long Island was at 5.25 percent. New cases have dropped more than 40 percent over the past week, with statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations down almost 30 percent over that same time period. A total of 90 people died over the last 24 hours, she said.

"We've not seen these kinds of numbers since November 8 in terms of our positive cases overall statewide, and our hospitalizations are down about 78 from yesterday," she said Monday. "So, we are improving. Hospitalizations are getting better all across the state and that's exactly the metric I'm looking at."

On Wednesday, Hochul said she will be making another announcement about the mask-or-vaccination mandate requirement, in place at workplaces and businesses since December when the state first learned about the omicron variant.

"We'll be having a conversation about that, if you can just hold on till Wednesday's news conference," she said.

According to Newsday, Hochul also said it was"premature" to make a decision Wednesday on the mask mandate in schools.

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 state immediately filed an appeal, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed a motion to stay the ruling. The stay was granted last week. "I commend the Appellate Division, Second Department for granting a full stay to keep our masking regulations in place for the duration of our appeal," Hochul said. "My primary responsibility as governor is to keep New Yorkers safe."

As legal arguments continued over New York's mask mandate, Hochul announced that the mask-or-proof-of-vaccination mandate for businesses would be extended temporarily until Feb. 10; now she will announce a decision by Wednesday, Feb. 9. The measure had been set to expire Feb. 1.

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

After 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.