The State of New York lifts from Thursday the obligation to wear the mask indoors, especially in shops, restaurants, businesses, announced Wednesday the Democratic governor of the State Kathy Hochul, at a time when the number of Covid-19 contamination is in free fall in the United States.
This obligation to wear the mask – which in fact expires on Thursday according to New York State law – will, on the other hand, remain in place in schools until March and it will be up to municipalities, including New York City, and businesses to impose it or not on their administrators and customers, Ms. Hochul said during a presentation to the press.
Even though the state and the megacity of New York were in 2020 the epicenter of the pandemic, with at least 38,000 deaths in two years in the city alone, Ms. Hochul welcomed health indicators all in “decline”.
It’s a beautiful painting (…)We are not finished but the trend is very, very well oriented and that is why we are now considering a new phase of the pandemic,” the Democratic governor launched.
The state of New York is therefore also dropping the mask indoors, following other states led by the Democratic party that have announced identical measures since Monday, such as California, New Jersey, or Connecticut.
Wearing a 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 during legislative elections in November that will renew part of the Congress in Washington.
The wearing of the mask has never been imposed in large states led by Republican governors such as Florida or Texas.
Daily contaminations in the United States are in freefall with just under 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. The threshold of 800,000 deaths had been passed in mid-December.
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