Mayor Eric Adams is expected to announce his final decision Friday on whether masks in schools, one of the longest-standing bastions of the pandemic, and the city's Key2NYC vaccine proof requirement will end early next week.
The Democrat has been vocal about the city needing to return more fully to pre-pandemic habits, especially on the economic front, and plugged a smart reopening throughout his election campaign. Given the latest CDC guidance on masking, which says more than 90% of the U.S. population now needn't wear them indoors, Adams indicated that he plans to lift some of those sweeping restrictions Monday.
Adams said early this week he wanted to end the indoor mask requirement for New York City public schools and the city's "Key2NYC" policy, which currently requires anyone 5 and older to show proof of vaccination in order to enter most public spaces, such as restaurants, bars, gyms and grocery stores. He said he wanted to wait until Friday for one last look at the number before he made a final decision.
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And the numbers have been good.
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COVID cases are down 43% on a rolling basis over the last week compared with the average for the prior four weeks, while hospitalizations and deaths are both down 71% by the same metric. And the data period for which those rates are down doesn't even encompass the meteoric plunge in the omicron-fueled wave that hit in late January. Factor in the peak and you're looking at a near 100% drop in cases.
About 77% of the city's population is fully vaccinated, though rates lag among eligible children (56% fully vaccinated, 35% with no dose yet).
Schools in New York outside the five boroughs were permitted to drop mask mandates as of Wednesday when Gov. Kathy Hochul lifted her statewide order.
Should Adams move forward with the plan he described, the changes would take effect on Monday, the same day New Jersey lifts its school mask mandate.
Unchanged is the city's vaccine requirement to work. All of the private-sector workers in New York City are still required to be fully vaccinated pursuant to the order put in place by Mayor Bill de Blasio at the end of last year.
The mandates designed and put in place to slow the spread of COVID-19 are getting pulled back during a major milestone of the pandemic. It's been more than two years since New York City reported its first case on March 1, 2020.
