“Liberty, liberty and liberty”. This is how Mayor Bill de Blasio described the action of getting vaccinated and being able to enjoy the new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that allow the ‘full’ vaccinated to stop wearing masks, although he warned that New Yorkers still they will have to follow several rules.
The new CDC guidelines go into effect this Wednesday in New York City, but the president explained that Those who are fully immunized will have to continue wearing the masks in the following places, as a matter of common sense: If you are in a school, on the Subway (all public transportation), in a hospital, in a nursing home and in the municipal government offices.
“There are many questions about these new guidelines, and that is normal, and we explain it to you to keep it simple because the truth is that it is not a complicated matter … the main point is that if you are vaccinated you will have more freedom, and you will be able to breathe easier and safer , that is the point. And if you are not, be smart and the best thing is to go and get vaccinated, ”said De Blasio.
And in a personal and direct advice to New Yorkers, the mayor expressed: “If you are fully vaccinated and you are indoors, but you are not sure if the rest of the people are vaccinated, I advise you that you should continue using your mask. That will also be accepted ”.
Meanwhile, the City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi, He also advised those who are not yet fully immunized, “to continue to wear masks as a precaution, and to continue to maintain social distancing, and to get tested for coronavirus regularly.” The City’s top doctor insisted that without a doubt “The key to enjoying it to the fullest in the coming months of June and July, and in general having a safe summer in general, is for everyone to get vaccinated.”
UPDATED MASK GUIDANCE:
Vaccinated and unvaccinated New Yorkers will still need to wear masks in:
????Schools
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???? Health care settings and congregate settings like hospitals and nursing homes https://t.co/jBgaASZYT3
— NYC Mayor’s Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) May 19, 2021
How will businesses implement the new rule?
And beyond the personal responsibility of each vaccinated person to comply with the rules, the big question that is now in the air is how private businesses and cultural institutions, such as museums, can determine who is vaccinated and who is not, and thus allow that their premises can be entered without a mask.
“It will be a matter of freedom to choose your own rules. Each business or cultural institution will decide how to do it, and if they decide, for example, that people should continue to wear masks from now on, they have every right to do so “, explained De Blasio.
“If instead they decide that the policy to enter their businesses is now that all those vaccinated no longer wear masks, it will also be allowed. The golden rule is that people should respect each other, and if the rule of a business is that to enter you have to wear masks, whether or not you are vaccinated, people should respect it, ”he added.
The Dr. Jay Varma, Mayor’s Chief Health Advisor, stressed that all studies show with strong evidence that fully vaccinated “have a very minimal risk of getting infected, And in the very rare case that a vaccinated person becomes infected, they have a very low chance of infecting other people. Now the challenge we all face is how to apply these CDC guidelines in the real world, when you know that a large percentage of up to 50% of your clients or your employees have not been vaccinated, and this is when you have to be very careful in assuming that everyone will be on their own and can do whatever they want, or say that while those numbers of vaccinated ones rise all must continue using masks ”.
With figures in hand, De Blasio showed that vaccination is giving very good results in the city, since with 7,682,972 doses administered so far, for the first time since October, this Wednesday all COVID-19 indicators are below the limit lines that had been established, with only 96 people admitted to hospitals on suspicion of coronavirus and of which only 23% tested positive, with only 537 positive cases registered in an average of seven days in a row, and with a positivity rate of 1.44% in the past seven days.
“We reached an important milestone”
Governor Andrew Cuomo also referred to the importance that this Wednesday the state is at a point in the fight against COVID-19, in which most restrictions can be allowed to be lifted Y stop wearing masks.
“Today is a milestone in New York State’s war on COVID. With positivity and hospitalization rates at their lowest levels since last fall, and more than 10 million New Yorkers who have received at least one dose of vaccine, today New York State is adopting the updated version from the CDC. Guidance on masks and social distancing, ”Cuomo said.
The Governor added, this means that: “399 days after New York was the first state in the country to implement a mask mandate, effective today, fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a face covering in most places. public. New York is making a comeback, and this is a testament to the strength and courage of New Yorkers who came together, stood tough, and fought as one to defeat this beast of COVID ”.
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