From Thursday 10 February the fourth most populous state in the country (about 20 million inhabitants, of which almost nine million in the megalopolis New York) will no longer require the use of a mask indoors — stores, restaurants, performance halls, businesses — Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday.
But this requirement remains in place in schools, nursing homes, community and detention centers and it is up to every municipality – including New York City – and every business to require it or not from its citizens and customers, Ms. Hochul said.
For example, at Broadway music halls in Manhattan, “we are maintaining a mask and vaccine mandate in all theaters through April 30,” Charlotte St. Martin, who chairs the Broadway League, told AFP.
The mask also remains mandatory in public transport – trains, metro, buses, airports – which fall under federal legislation.
“Magnificent Painting”
To justify his decision, Governor Hochul boasted of a “beautiful picture” in terms of health and indicators all “declining” in the state. Certainly, he acknowledged, “we are not finished (with Covid-19) but the trend is very, very well orientated and that is why we are now considering a new phase of the pandemic”.
In the spring of 2020, New York City was the epicenter of the epidemic in the United States, with its dead piled in refrigerated trucks, its arteries deserted like in a science fiction film. The megacity has totaled at least 38,000 deaths from Covid-19 in the past two years.
Wearing a mask is still highly respected there by New Yorkers who are far more vaccinated than in the rest of the country. In Manhattan or Brooklyn, the shops display sketches of masked faces and it takes a vaccination card and an identity document to consume a simple coffee seated.
The State of New York thus follows California, Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Illinois, as many democratic states that announced on Monday the gradual lifting between this week and March of the mask requirement in closed environments and/or in schools.
The latest, the Democratic governor of Illinois JB Pritzker summed up the mood of his fellow citizens on Wednesday: “We are all tired of wearing masks, it is obvious,” he said in Chicago.
The leader of this Great Lakes state could look with concern further north at Canadian truckers opposed to the health measures, which block the capital Ottawa and a bridge on the border between the two North American giants.
Conversely, in many Republican-led states, such as Florida, the mask has never really been enforced at the state level. Without preventing the governors from having it imposed on time by counties and municipalities, schools or administrations.
The mask, a political indicator
The mask is in fact a very strong political marker in the United States, where the obligation to cover the face is considered a violation of individual liberties by a large part of the right and the Republican Party. The latter is also well positioned to overtake the President’s Democratic Party Joe Biden in the legislative elections next November which will renew part of the Congress a Washington.
In a sign that Covid-19 has polarized political positions, on Wednesday the Republican Party accused “Joe Biden and the Democrats of politicizing ‘science’ and now lying about their variable geometry views on masks, obligations and confinements”.
Indeed, a Pew Research Institute survey of more than 10,200 Americans reveals that 60% of them feel “confused” by changes in the recommendations of health authorities to combat the epidemic.
At the federal level, it is not yet a question of lifting the restrictions, but “the time will come when Covid will not disrupt our daily lives”, the coordinator of the fight against Covid-19 at the White House, Jeffrey Zienti, assured the White House on Wednesday.
Contaminations in the United States are in free fall with fewer than 250,000 cases per day on average over seven consecutive days, according to health authorities. Far from the peak of 800,000 cases reached in mid-January. However, on Feb. 4, the country passed the 900,000 Covid-19 death mark in nearly two years, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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