Almost normal life: New York lifts important covid restrictions

The restrictions will end on March 7 if the number of cases remains low. New York says it will lift mandatory mask use in schools and vaccination requirement to enter premises, reports New York Times.

Mayor of new york Eric Adams announced on Feb. 27 that the city is ready to lift mandatory school masks and vaccine requirements for restaurants, gyms and movie theaters by March 7 if case numbers remain low.

The lifting of pandemic restrictions, which have served as a decisive weapon in the city's fight against the coronavirus, is an important milestone. Many hope that it will help restore normal life in the city and accelerate the recovery of its economy.

Adams has been saying for weeks that he is seeking to lift virus-related restrictions across the city, including mandatory masks in schools. In a February 27 statement, he promised a final decision by March 4.

The mayor said he wants to give business owners time to adjust. This is a nod to the losses that the virus and its associated restrictions have inflicted on small businesses. Both Adams and New York Gov. Kathy Hokul have focused their efforts on reviving New York's economy, where unemployment remains persistently high.

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The news comes hours after Hokul announced that the mask requirement in statewide schools would be lifted. This will allow local authorities to assess the need for additional restrictions in their schools. New York's vaccination regulations for municipal employees and private employers remain in effect.

Hawkul said the mask mandate was a vital tool in the fight against the spread of Omicron.

Individual districts and counties may impose their own restrictions

The state's decision does not override the decisions of individual districts and counties, such as New York. They can still impose mask-wearing requirements and other restrictive measures.

The cancellations come a day after New York announced a statewide seven-day average of below 2 percent positivity rates and fewer than 2000 hospitalizations for the first time since Omicron went viral. The decline is part of a nationwide decline in coronavirus cases. Across the state, hospitals that have been forced to limit elective procedures due to the virus have been allowed to resume normal operations.

New York's mandate to vaccinate restaurants, movie theaters, and gyms, known as the Key to New York program, was put in place by Adams' predecessor. Bill de Blasio as an important strategy to encourage New Yorkers to get the Covid vaccine and to reduce the spread of the virus. Dr. Jay Varma, de Blasio's chief health adviser, stressed on Feb. 27 that the mandate to vaccinate all employees in New York who work in offices is still in place and called on the Department of Education to make high-quality masks available to students who are all still want to protect themselves.

Adams focused on city rebuilding and public safety during his first weeks in office and encouraged tourists to return. He repeatedly urged New Yorkers to return to the offices and argued that the fate of low-paid workers and small businesses depended on them.

Only 59% of school students received one dose of the vaccine

Last week, New York City released data for the first time showing that only 59 percent of city school students received at least one dose of the vaccine. But even that figure contained significant differences between districts and schools, nonprofit educational organization Chalkbeat said. The organization found that the most vaccinated borough in Manhattan had more than double the vaccination rate of the least vaccinated borough of Brooklyn. Adult vaccination rates are much higher; more than 96 percent of New Yorkers aged 18 and over received one dose.

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The announcement of masks in schools appears poised to end a bitter and controversial chapter in the state's pandemic history. Schools are increasingly becoming a battlefield in a polarized nationwide dialogue between teachers, parents, students and politicians about what measures are appropriate to protect against the virus.

Governor Hokul has been under pressure to repeal the state's mask-wearing rules in schools as she allowed the mandate for businesses to expire earlier this month. At the time, the governor vowed to return to the issue of masks in schools after students returned from winter break in early March. But it came under intense pressure after nearby states with Democratic governors, including Connecticut, New Jersey and Delaware, announced their plans to withdraw mandates.

Then, on Friday, February 25, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Washington issued new guidance that masks and social distancing are only needed in high-risk areas, paving the way for many virus prevention measures to be lifted.

It is no longer mandatory to wear masks in school yards

The announcement comes as the agency changed its strategy from a risk assessment based on case counts to a strategy that estimates the strain on hospitals from coronavirus patients as well as new cases per 100 people in the previous week. The guidance is drastically changing the assessment of the virus across the country from one in which 000 percent of counties were considered high risk to one in which most Americans can return to life without masks or social distancing.

While Hokul's decision leaves the de facto authority to implement the state's hundreds of school districts, the announcement is a major milestone in stopping New York City's efforts to keep its public schools open amid the pandemic. This is especially true of New York City, which closed its vast system of approximately 1600 schools for the first time in March 2020 and has maintained strict virus mitigation measures since schools began reopening in September 2020. Just last week, the city lifted the mandatory use of school masks outdoors.

The United Teachers Federation, which represents teachers in New York, struck a thoughtful note, with its president, Michael Mulgrew, saying the union will "consult with our independent physicians, review data from home test kits and randomized tests." school testing this week, and make sure it's all accounted for as New York City reviews its own school mask-wearing policy."

And while many support the abolition of mandates, the shift will almost certainly affect a significant number of New Yorkers who see it as premature. And a recent poll by the Siena College Research Institute found that 58 percent of New York's registered voters believe the state should delay lifting the mask requirement in schools until it reviews data from early March. The same poll, conducted two weeks ago, showed that 45 percent of respondents disapproved of the removal of mask requirements in private business.