Recent Mask Mandate
This past December, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that masks will be mandated in all indoor public areas for vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens unless the business applies a vaccine requirement. This mandate has been put into action due to the winter surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. Health departments are urged to enforce this mandate, including demanding fines of $1,000 if not taken seriously and violations.
Kathy Hochul stated on December 10th, “As Governor, my two top priorities are to protect the health of New Yorkers and to protect the health of our economy. The temporary measures I am taking today will help accomplish this through the holiday season. We shouldn’t have reached the point where we are confronted with a winter surge, especially with the vaccine at our disposal, and I share many New Yorkers’ frustration that we are not past this pandemic yet.”
The first week of the mandate in effect caused mixed reviews from many people. Other counties have been conversing about whether or not to enforce the mandate, which is raising tensions between residents over COVID protocols.
The original plan was to keep this measure effective from December 13, 2021, until January 5, 2022, but recently the mandate has been extended to February 1, 2022, due to the rise of cases. Hochul had said, “ I want to give everybody the heads up that this will continue just two more weeks beyond what we had originally planned, again, being very willing to reassess, hoping that the picture is much more positive in February. But again, we just don’t have that information right now.” Many schools are now back to virtual and other schools have a shortage of staff. But for now, it’s important for everyone to wear their mask if they are vaccinated or not if they are over the age of 2.