NYC School Mask And Business Vaccine Mandates Could End March 7

NEW YORK CITY — City public school students might take off their masks and businesses could see the end of a vaccine mandate as early as March 7, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday.

Adams will decide Friday to remove the indoor mask mandate for more than a million New York City public schools — and Key2NYC vaccination requirements for indoor dining, gyms and venues — if COVID-19 levels remain low, the mayor announced on Twitter.

"We’re taking this week to give business owners the time to adapt," Adams wrote, "while we monitor the numbers to ensure we are making the best public health decisions for the people of New York."

The mayor's announcement came hours after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul told the state she would lift the state's school mask mandate on Wednesday.

"We withstood a lot of objections," Hochul said. "The day has come."

These rollbacks come as New York recovers from an Omicron wave that saw record-breaking surges in COVID-19 cases in December and January.

But as quickly as Omicron arrived, it left, data show.

Less than .01 percent of nearly 20 million New York State tested positive with just 1,671 new cases Sunday, Hochul said. On Jan. 7, the number was number 90,000.

The positivity rate in the five boroughs stood at 1.92 percent, according to city data reviewed by Patch Sunday afternoon.

But concerns about low vaccination rates among young New Yorkers anda new, more contagious variant spurred some New Yorkers to criticize Adam's choice.

"Why is the rush?" tweeted Natalia. "Can’t we wait until the pandemic is completely over?"

"Please don’t," responded Mara McEwin. "We are doing so well. I don’t think we are there yet. And our schools are crowded."

One New Yorker celebrated.

"My 8 yo's 1st response when I told her about the announcement," wrote Josh Rogers wrote: "Now I like Eric Adams."

Patch editor Lisa Finn contributed to this report.