(Bloomberg) — New York’s Covid-19 restrictions, in the city and around the state, will be scaled back in the coming days, ending indoor school mask mandates and requirements to show proof of vaccination in city restaurants, gyms and other venues.
The announcements Sunday added up to possibly the most significant erosion of restrictions since New York became the first U.S. epicenter for the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced that New York state would lift its indoor school mask mandate on March 2, citing a reduction in infections, hospitalizations and deaths caused by the omicron variant. Daily cases plunged from a record of more than 90,000 statewide in January to 1,671 on Sunday.
Then Mayor Eric Adams said the city would do the same on March 7, assuming “no unforeseen spikes and our numbers continue to show a low level of risk.”
He also said, also barring no change in the outbreak’s downward trajectory, that the city would lift the requirement to show proof of vaccination at restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters and other public indoor venues.
Waiting until March 7, Adams said in a press release, “will give business owners the time to adapt and will allow us to ensure we are making the best public health decisions for the people of New York.”
Adams didn’t address overall masking policies, though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday loosened restrictions for indoor masking around the nation. Last week, the mayor dropped outdoor masking requirements for schoolchildren.
Hochul said in a press briefing in Albany that individual counties will still be able to impose their own mask rules, and parents can decide whether their child is safe to attend school maskless. She said about a third of the state continues to have a transmission risk greater than low to medium as defined by the CDC.
“I want to send a loud message,” she said. “We will have no tolerance in our school system or anywhere else for any harassment or bullying” against those who decide to continue to wear masks.
Overall, she said, “We are in a much, much better place.”
In recent weeks, Covid-19 restrictions have been scaled back or eliminated in broad swaths of the U.S., with New York remaining among the last with strict anti-virus measures.
(Adds Hochul on schools not dropping mask mandate)
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