What you should know
- Beginning Monday, children in K-12 schools run by the New York City Department of Education will no longer be required to wear masks indoors. The mandate remains in place for classrooms serving children under the age of 5.
- Also effective this week: will end the program Key2NYC which requires indoor public places to check vaccination status for customers. However, the rule requiring employee vaccination remains in place.
- Mayor Eric Adams said he still wouldn’t change New York City’s rules for wearing masks on public transportation if the CDC chooses to make new recommendations on that issue on March 18.
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After nearly two full years of wearing masks in virtually every critical component of daily life, the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut are loosening the last tough COVID-19 related rules around mask wearing.
State mandates for indoor face coverings in schools have been lifted in all three states and in New York City, which was the epicenter of the disease at the start of the pandemic in the country. The Big Apple ended the mandate in schools on Monday.
The city also suspended the vaccination mandate Key2NYC, implemented by former Mayor Bill de Blasio last summer, which required patrons to show proof of vaccination to enter enclosed public spaces. At the moment, the vaccination mandate for all employees, public and private, in the five boroughs remains in force.
The changes to the measures follow updated CDC guidance which essentially says that most people do not need to wear face masks in closed public places unless there is a high level of severe illness. The health agency’s new benchmarks for assessing that level of threat now mean that more than 70% of the US population don’t have to wear a mask.
So where will you need to wear a mask after March 7 in the New York area?
- Public transport: the feds require mask-wearing on planes and trains (as well as at airports and transit stations), while NYC and NJ transit operators require masks on trains, buses, and tax/rideshare services.
- Broadway theaters: masks are required until April 30. More here.
- health care facilities: such as hospitals and nursing homes, as well as adult care facilities.
- correctional facilities.
- Shelters for the homeless.
- Individual businesses choosing to require masks: State law allows local municipalities to opt for more stringent standards around COVID if they choose.
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