As of Thursday, February 10, the fourth most populous state in the country (some 20 million inhabitants, including almost nine million in the megacity New York) will no longer impose the wearing of masks in enclosed places – shops, restaurants, theaters, businesses – said Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul on Wednesday.
But this obligation remains in force in schools, nursing homes, social and detention centers and it is up to each municipality – including the one in New York – and each business to require it or not from its administrators and customers, Ms. Hochul said.
For example, in the Broadway music halls in Manhattan, “we maintain the obligation of the mask and the vaccine in all theaters until April 30,” Charlotte St. Martin, who chairs the Broadway League.
The mask also remains mandatory on public transport – trains, subways, buses, airports – which are subject to federal legislation.
“Beautiful painting”
To justify her decision, Governor Hochul boasted of a “magnificent picture” in terms of health and indicators all “declining” in the state. Certainly, she acknowledged, “we are not done (with Covid-19) but the trend is very, very well oriented 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 up in refrigerated trucks, its arteries deserted as in a science fiction movie. The megacity totals at least 38,000 deaths from Covid-19 over the past two years.
The wearing of the mask is still well respected by New Yorkers much more vaccinated than in the rest of the country. In Manhattan or Brooklyn, shops display sketches of masked faces and it takes a pass and an ID to consume a simple coffee sitting.
The state of New York thus follows California, Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Illinois, so many Democratic states that have announced since Monday the gradual lifting between this week and March of the mandatory mask indoors and / or in schools.
The latest, the Democratic governor of Illinois J.B. Pritzker summed up the state of mind of his fellow citizens on Wednesday: “We are all tired of wearing masks, that’s obvious,” he told the Chicago Tribune.
The leader of this Great Lakes state may be looking anxiously further north at Canadian truckers opposed to the health measures, which block the capital Ottawa and a bridge on the border between the two giants of North America.
Conversely, in many Republican-led states, such as Florida, the mask has never really been imposed at the state level. Without preventing governors from letting counties and municipalities impose it punctually at school or in administrations.
The mask, a political marker
In fact, the mask is a very strong political marker in the United States, where the obligation to cover one’s face is considered a violation of individual freedoms by a large part of the right and the Republican party. The latter is also well placed to check the pawn of the Democratic party of President Joe Biden in the general elections next November that will renew part of the Congress in Washington.
In a sign that Covid-19 has polarized political positions, the Republican party on Wednesday accused “Joe Biden and the Democrats of politicizing ‘science’ and now lying about their views on masks, bonds and confinement”.
In fact, a Pew Research Institute survey of more than 10,200 Americans reveals that 60% of them feel “confusion” about changes in the recommendations of health authorities to combat the epidemic.
At the federal level, there is no question yet of lifting the restrictions but “the time will come when Covid will not disrupt our daily lives,” assured the coordinator of the fight against Covid-19 at the White House, Jeffrey Zients, on Wednesday.
Contaminations in the United States are in freefall with fewer than 250,000 cases a day on average over seven slippery days, according to health authorities. Far from the peak of 800,000 cases reached in mid-January. However, on February 4, the country crossed the 900,000 Covid-19 deaths mark in almost two years, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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