Gov. Hochul lifting business mask mandate effective tomorrow
Gov. Kathy Hochul is lifting the state’s business mask mandate on Thursday as New York emerges from a deadly wave of Omicron cases — but will still require them in schools for now.
The “mask or vax” mandate is being dropped statewide but it will now be optional for counties, cities and businesses, Gov. Hochul said at a press briefing on Wednesday.
“At this time, we say that it’s 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 with respect to [the] mask or vaccination requirement,” she said.
“Given the declining cases, given the declining hospitalizations, that is why we feel comfortable to lift this in effect tomorrow,” Hochul said.
New York City is expected to keep the mandate in place and still recommend that people wear masks, sources told The Post.
The Dec. 10 mandate ordered Empire State businesses without vaccination requirements to compel workers, customers and visitors to wear masks in most public indoor settings, including grocery stores, shops and offices.
Masks will still be required on public transit, in nursing homes, correctional facilities and homeless shelters, Hochul said.
In New York City, the lifting of Hochul’s mask mandate won’t change the current requirement for proof of vaccination for indoor bars and restaurants, gyms and indoor entertainment spaces.
And masks will still be required in the Big Apple on mass transit, in health care settings and schools, according to the city – but private businesses can choose to require employees and patrons to mask up.
“New Yorkers, this is what we’ve been waiting for. Tremendous progress after two long years,” Hochul said on Wednesday.
“This fight is not over, we’re not surrendering. This is not disarmament… but again the trends are very, very positive,” she added.
Jessica Walker, president and CEO of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, told The Post that now City Hall needs “to define the threshold at which point the local mandates will fall away.”
“Their efforts have already been successful insofar as 95 percent of adults are now vaccinated and the surge from Omicron has waned. We certainly don’t want to undermine these gains, but we also don’t want the local mandates to outlive their usefulness,” she said.
Bronx Chamber of Commerce president Lisa Sorin echoed the idea.
“What else is there to do? I’m not an expert, but I personally don’t know how much there is we can do. The city has done everything it possibly can,” she said.
“You’ve had a year and a half pushing people to get to the right thing. But you have over 90 percent [of] people doing the right thing, you have 99 percent of the businesses doing the right thing and so, why should we continue to lose business to Westchester County, or to New Jersey, or to Connecticut when we’re probably doing better than all of them put together?”
Hochul, who has faced mounting pressure to also lift her school mask mandate, said she would make an assessment on schools the first week of March, after kids have been back in school from the mid-winter break.
The governor said millions of COVID tests would be handed out to school children so they can test over the break.
She said the decision would be based, in part, on case numbers, pediatric hospitalizations and vaccination rates – but she stopped short of offering specific benchmarks.
Asked if she could see the mandate being lifted on March 7 if there had been no uptick in cases the week prior, Hochul said: “That is a very strong possibility.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said this week that the daily positivity rate in Big Apple public schools was below 1 percent.
Her counterparts in Connecticut and New Jersey announced earlier this week they’ll be dropping all of their mask edicts, including for schools, by the end of February or beginning of March.
“Adults can make their own decision… children still need adults to look out for their health,” Hochul said of the school mandate. “This is all about looking out for the health of our children.”
Republican members of Congress from New York were quick to slam Hochul’s decision to keep school mandates in place, arguing that children were the least vulnerable to COVID.
“It’s pretty sick that Kathy Hochul still isn’t lifting her statewide mask mandate on kids in school as young as 2-years-old,” said Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Long Island) who is challenging Hochul for governor this year.
“Her power trip never ends, and while her illegal mask mandate on adults is now ending, she remains hell-bent on totally controlling the lives of our children.”
And upstate Rep. Elise Stefanik said Hochul was being a hypocrite.
“Even though multiple Democrat Governors across the Northeast have dropped their mandates, Governor Hochul is forcing three-year-olds to wear masks,” Stefanik said. “It is past time for these authoritarian mandates to end, but to Kathy Hochul, this is clearly about politics, not New York families.”
Hochul had met with school administrators and teacher unions on Tuesday about when she would lift the mandate.
Robert Lowry, Deputy Director for Advocacy, Research & Communications of the New York State Council of School Superintendents, said parents were frustrated that the state had failed to provide benchmarks as to when the mandates will end.
Hochul also vowed to continue fighting a lawsuit filed last month in Long Island that sought to throw out her business “vax or mask” edict.
An appeals court judge granted a motion last month to pause the decision handed down by Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Thomas Rademaker that tossed the mandate.
“We will continue to maintain and demonstrate in a court of law that New York state and its health department has the power to protect the citizens of this state,” Hochul said.
“I believe we’ll be victorious in establishing that very basic premise that has guided this state through a global pandemic.”
Additional reporting Carl Campanile, Juliegrace Brufke
