ALBANY — New York will hold its statewide masks mandate in place by Feb. 1, regardless of a downward development in COVID-19 circumstances and a rising lack of compliance from defiant Lengthy Island officers, Gov. Kathy Hochul mentioned Friday.
“I discover it phenomenally disappointing that persons are prepared to play politics with kids’s lives,” Hochul mentioned throughout a Suffolk County-based press convention on the Brookhaven Nationwide Lab, when requested if she’ll crack down on a number of Lengthy Island college districts which are reportedly flouting the rule.
“Colleges are protected and why are they protected? As a result of folks have been carrying masks. Children are carrying masks and so they’re adapting to it. Not one thing we’re going to maintain for much longer, we all know we don’t must, however this has saved kids protected and in a studying atmosphere.”
Hochul mentioned she can't decide to an expiration date of the rule.
“I’m going to proceed to make use of the factor of time and on the proper time, assess the place we're. After we put this in place, we absolutely anticipated that we might not have a necessity for a masks mandate in colleges till Nov. 26 when Omicron hit, as a result of we have been trending down in a lovely means with Delta.”
She added: “I’d be negligent. If I mentioned now on a sure date, one thing’s going to occur.”
The state Well being Division issued a masks mandate for all children and lecturers in private and non-private colleges on the finish of August, however a surge within the Omicron variant brought on Hochul to implement a further masks requirement for all public areas, together with companies and colleges.
She’s gotten pushback from Nassau’s new County Govt Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, who has mentioned he gained’t implement the rule within the county and moreover, issued a countywide mandate saying colleges might determine whether or not they wish to implement the regulation.
Hochul has additionally threatened that the state Training Division might withhold funding from defiant Lengthy Island colleges, ought to they proceed to flout the statewide mandate.
“I'll inform you about Feb. 1 on Jan. 31. I actually do want to attend till that point. Pattern is wanting good and I’m an optimist, however I noticed an excellent development simply in early November, after which all the things modified,” mentioned Hochul.
In the meantime, the state reported 28,296 COVID-19 circumstances on Friday, down from the 90,132 optimistic circumstances two weeks in the past, on Jan. 7.
“That’s a 66.6 % drop in two weeks. Now we have been ready for this second.”
Hospitalizations are additionally persevering with a downward development — hitting 11,016 people admitted for the virus statewide — and one other 154 people misplaced their lives.
“We had 12,000, virtually 13,000 circumstances simply [on] Jan. 12 and now we’re all the way down to 1,100,” mentioned the governor.
“So, we’re watching these very carefully.”
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