With data to back her up, Hochul lifts school mask mandate

Gov. Kathy Hochul announced last Sunday that the state requirement for children in school and child care to wear masks indoors would end on March 2.

Hochul likened the Covid-19 pandemic to a “war that has been unfolding for the last two years, where our country has been under siege by this unseen assailant – one that has taken thousands of lives of Americans and New Yorkers.”

In defense of the mask requirement so far, Hochul said that when she was sworn into office six months ago, her priority was to get children back to school, but that wearing masks was the best guarantee for children’s safety, especially since no pediatric vaccine was available until November.

“We’re going to talk about where we came from in these last six months,” Hochul said, “and you see the spikes and the infection rates that really validated the rationale and the logic behind ensuring that we had those masks in place through those spikes, especially the Omicron variant.”

On Sunday, East Meadow School District Superintendent Kenneth Card responded to Hochul’s announcement and announced to parents that masks will be optional starting March 2.

“This, we believe, marks an end to a challenging time for our district and we thank our school community for your cooperation and patience as we work through the next two days of school and the transition to mask optional,” Card said on the phone call to parents.

Using a series of large diagrams, during her announcement Hochul demonstrated her use of positivity rates, hospitalizations, CDC guidance, and consultations with “the educational community, whose voices needed to be heard – our commissioner of education, our parents, our PTAs, our school superintendents, our school administrators, and our school unions,” in the process of deciding whether or not to require masks.

From a high of a seven-day average of 14,167 positive pediatric Covid cases as of Jan. 10, with 38 children hospitalized, the numbers have dropped steadily for 48 days. Now, across the state, the seven-day average of pediatric cases is 226, and only 7 children are hospitalized with Covid.

Hochul said the current numbers represent “our lowest point in pediatric cases since July of 2021, and that was before the school year started. … We are in a much, much better place.”

The improved statistics were confirmed late Friday by a CDC report that broke down the number of Covid cases in New York by county.

“They’ve come up with a calculation on what constitutes a low, medium, or high community risk level,” Hochul said, “and 70% of our population now lives in an area considered low to medium risk.” The CDC recommendation is that for communities with low to medium risk, masks for children need no longer be required indoors, including for children in daycare.

“So given the decline in our infection rates, our hospitalizations, our strong vaccination rates, and the CDC guidance,” said Hochul, “my friends, the day has come.”

Phyllis Hall, a parent of children in East Meadow Schools reacted positively to the change.

“As a parent, this is all I ever wanted,” Hall said of parental choice in the matter of masks. “If you’re uncomfortable wear a mask and if you are comfortable don’t wear one.”

Natalie Valdes, a parent of a fourth-grader, was happy to hear this news as well. “We just moved back from Florida where there has not been a mandate,” Valdes said. “I am happy there is not one here for my son.”

In response to Hochul’s announcement, County Executive Bruce Blakeman said, “While I believe the governor’s decision to end her unconstitutional mandate is too little too late, I am happy that parents will soon have the power to decide what is best for their kids, and our students will finally be able to return to normal and see the smiling faces of their friends again.”