Gov. Kathy Hochul today lifted the state’s controversial universal mask mandate for K-12 schools, effective Wednesday, March 2.
Citing the CDC’s new guidance for determining COVID-19 infection risk and current data trends, the governor said the COVID-19 data and metrics show the state’s “long and painful journey” of the winter surge has ended.
Infection numbers and hospitalizations have plummeted and the number of vaccinated New Yorkers has increased, Hochul said.
Locally, the governor’s announcement today will likely mean students in the Riverhead Central School District will soon be able to attend school without masks, since Riverhead School Superintendent Augustine Tornatore told families Friday the district will return to a “mask optional“ policy as soon as the governor lifts the universal mask mandate for K-12 schools in New York.
“My intention is to have the district revert back to mask optional when the governor lifts the mandate,“ Tornatore told district families in a recorded phone call Friday.
It was not clear if formal approval by the board of education would be required since the board last year adopted a reopening policy that requires universal masking in Riverhead schools.
Hochul said while the statewide mandate will be lifted, counties with medium to high risk for COVID-19 infection according to the CDC guidance can decide whether to lift the mandate locally.
“As I said on day one, our priority is to get our children back to school. We knew one thing for certain is that the experiment of remote learning had devastating effects,” Hochul said. “To make sure we got back to the classroom, we took a step at that time… in order to ensure the safety of our environment, to protect everyone in schools, we would require masks…” Hochul said.
She acknowledged that decision brought her “a lot of criticism,” but her administration was committed to following the data trends.
“We said that as the numbers start coming down we’re going to be very logical about this, listening to the experts, and relying on metrics and data that are reliable,” Hochul said.
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