The State of New York lifts the obligation to wear a mask indoors as of Thursday, in particular in shops, restaurants, businesses, announced on Wednesday the Democratic governor of the state Kathy Hochul, at a time when the number of contaminations to COVID-19 is plummeting in the United States.
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The measure announced Wednesday comes after other states led by Democrats this week, while most Republican states have never implemented such an obligation.
As of Thursday, the fourth most populous state in the country (some 20 million inhabitants, including nearly nine million in the megalopolis New York) will no longer impose the wearing of a mask in closed places – shops, restaurants, bathrooms. entertainment, businesses – Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul announced to the press on Wednesday.
But this obligation is maintained in educational institutions, retirement homes, social and detention centers and it will be up to each municipality – including that of New York – and to each business to impose it or not on its citizens and customers, specified Mrs. Hochul.
Thus, in the famous music halls of Broadway in the heart of Manhattan, “we maintain the obligation of the mask and the vaccine in all theaters until April 30”, declared to AFP Charlotte St. Martin, who chairs the Broadway League.
The mask also remains compulsory in public transport – trains, metros, buses, airports – which fall under federal legislation.
“Magnificent painting”
To justify her decision, Kathy Hochul boasted of health indicators all “down” in a state and a city which were the epicenter of the pandemic in 2020, with at least 38,000 deaths in two years in the region alone. megalopolis.
The governor welcomed a “magnificent picture” in terms of health.
“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,” she promised.
The fact remains that wearing a mask has always been well respected by New Yorkers traumatized by the epidemic: each business displays sketches of masked faces and you need a vaccination pass and an identity document to consume a simple coffee seated.
New York State is following in the footsteps of California, Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Massachusetts, US states on the West Coast and the East Coast, which have announced since Monday the lifting wearing a mandatory mask indoors or in schools.
Measures which, on the other hand, have never been imposed in Republican states, such as Florida and Texas.
The mask, a political marker
In fact, the mask is a very strong political marker in the United States, where the obligation to cover the face is considered an infringement of individual freedoms by a large part of the right and the Republican Party.
The latter is also well placed to outdo the pawn of President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party during legislative elections in November which will renew part of Congress in Washington.
Narrowly re-elected last November against a Republican, New Jersey Democratic Governor Phil Murphy announced on Monday the end of the mandatory mask in schools from March 7. Likewise in Connecticut from February 28 and in Delaware – residence of President Biden – for closed places from Friday and in schools on March 31.
It was Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, chief executive of the huge and very populous California (40 million citizens), who hit hard on Monday: no more mandatory masks indoors for all residents vaccinated from February 15.
He invoked “a contamination rate down 65% since the peak of the Omicron variant”. Similarly in the neighboring state of Oregon, the mask will no longer be mandatory on March 31.
Contaminations in the United States are in freefall with just under 250,000 cases per day on average over seven rolling 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 bar of 900,000 deaths from Covid-19 in almost two years, according to Johns Hopkins University. The threshold of 800,000 deaths had been passed in mid-December.
At the federal level, there is no question of lifting the restrictions yet, but “the time will come when the Covid will not disrupt our daily lives”, assured the coordinator of the fight against COVID-19 at the White House on Wednesday. , Jeffrey Zients.
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