BY KEVIN DUGGAN
Governor Kathy Hochul
announced she will not extend
her statewide indoor
mask mandate after the mandate
expired last week amid
receding COVID infection
and hospitalization rates.
Face coverings will still
be required in schools in
the coming weeks as Hochul
wants to wait until after the
midwinter break to decide
on whether she will make
changes to that rule.
“It is indeed a beautiful
day here in New York, as we
see the storm clouds are parting,
as are the COVID clouds
parting,” Hochul said during
a COVID briefing on Feb. 9.
Local governments and
businesses can continue to
keep mask rules if they so
choose, according to Hochul.
Masks will still be required
at state-regulated
facilities, including nursing
homes, correctional facilities,
homeless shelters,
schools, as well as public
transit and airports.
The governor’s mask-orvaccine
mandate started on
Dec. 13 requiring people to
don face coverings in all public
indoor settings except if
businesses or venues had a
vaccine requirement.
The decision by the governor
and the state Department
of Health came as the
first cases of the more contagious
Omicron variant of COVID
19 were detected in New
York, fueling a steep rise in
cases and hospitalizations
over the holidays.
Infections rose to more
than 90,000 a day in early
January and hospitalizations
peaked at north of
12,000 a few days later, but
both numbers have since
dropped to 4,300 cases and
5,000 hospitalizations as of
Feb. 7, according to DOH.
Hochul twice extended
her mandate’s deadline to
Feb. 10, but the rule was challenged
in court by opponents
TIMESLEDGER | Q 4 NS.COM | FEB. 18 - FEB. 24, 2022
Acting state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett (l.) with Gov. Kathy Hochul.
who argued that DOH did not
have the authority to implement
it.
The state Supreme Court
on Long Island overturned
the mandate on Jan. 24, but
an appellate court judge put
a stay on the lower court’s
decision the next day as the
governor’s administration
sought an appeal.
The current masking requirement
for schools dates
back to Hochul’s first day in
office in August and is set to
expire on Feb. 21, at the outset
Photo by Kevin P. Coughlin / Offi ce of the Governor
of the midwinter break.
The governor met with
education and parent leaders
in a closed-door session
Tuesday, and she wants to
wait until early March after
the break before making the
final call on that rule.
The state will send test
kits to families across the
state before the break and
Hochul wants kids to get tested
the day after they come
back and again three days
later.
By the end of the first
week back on Friday, March
4, she will assess the mask
mandate based on positivity
rates, hospitalizations, vaccinations,
and “global trends”
of the virus, she said before
making a call on whether to
keep it, saying that there is a
“very strong possibility” she
will lift it if trends remain
similar to what they are now.
“After the break, after we
had kids tested, we are going
to make an assessment that
first week in March based on
all the metrics,” she said.
Governor lets business mask
mandate expire; decision on
schools expected in March
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