New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that the state will end its indoor mask mandate as well as its requirement for businesses to ask patrons for proof of vaccination starting Thursday. New York now joins several states in rolling back COVID restrictions as cases begin to wane after peaking in January due to the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Hochul pointed to the overall decline in infection rates and hospitalizations in the state as the reason behind the easing of restrictions, echoing previous statements by the governors of New Jersey, California, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island, who have also rolled by mask mandates.
"At this time, we say it is the right decision to lift this mandate for indoor business, and let counties, cities and businesses to make their own decisions on what they want to do with respect to mask or the vaccination requirement," Hochul said during a press conference on Wednesday. "However, we want to make sure that every business knows this is your prerogative. And individuals who want to continue wearing masks, continue wearing masks."
Hochul said that a statewide mask mandate will still remain in effect for schools, state-run health care facilities, and on public transit, which is still required under federal manade. However, Hochul added that the state may evaluate the mask mandate for school later this month.
Despite several states moving forward with easing COVID restrictions, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still continues to recommend that individuals weak masks in indoor public spaces where there's a high risk of transmission.
"At this time, we continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission--that's much of the country right now,--in public indoor settings" said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky during a press briefing on Wednesday.
Walensky said that the United States' current seven-day daily infections average is about 247,300 per day, a decrease of about 44% week-over-week. Meanwhile, the seven-day average for hospitalization is about 13,000 per day, a decrease of about 25% over the previous period.
"The cases are continuing to drop dramatically, hospitalizations are continuing to drop dramatically as [governors] are making these decisions and as we are working on our guidance, so I'm encouraged to see those trends," Walensky added.
Walensky noted that the seven-day average of daily deaths, which usually lags behind infection rates, is about 2,400 per day, an increase of about 3% week-over-week. Also, this week the nation reached a tragic new mark of 900,000 deaths due to COVID.