They’ll remain in place for health care facilities.Īnd it’s the first day of school in New York City, another area where the pandemic restrictions in place last year have largely disappeared. Mask mandates will also be lifted at homeless shelters and jails. Hochul pegged her decision to the launch of a new Omicron-specific booster shot, which she received on Wednesday. (Some politicians aren’t amused.)įor New Yorkers who are eager to shed pandemic precautions, this represents another big step back towards “normal.” For those who are still trying to avoid Covid-19, life gets a little harder once again. Even those little yellow mask faces on MTA public service announcements are officially taking an anything-goes stance. Still, rules are rules, and more faces may be bared now that going maskless is officially sanctioned. Compliance has fallen precipitously since the MTA stopped keeping track in April, when it stood at 64 percent, and enforcement has been nonexistent. Of course, anyone who’s taken the subway recently can tell you riders have been treating the mask mandate more like a suggestion for quite some time. It’s one of the last places in New York where masks were still required, and the transit system was one of the few in the nation with a mandate in place. Kathy Hochul lifted the mask mandate that has been in place since April 2020.

Masks are no longer required on subways, buses and commuter trains, after Gov. “I also want people to feel safe and secure - safety-wise, but also health-wise,” the governor said on June 9.By ERIN DURKIN, ANNA GRONEWOLD and JULIAN SHEN-BERRO Hochul has previously teased a “conversation” about lifting New York’s remaining requirement - but had insisted it was too soon for a change. Biden administration officials opted not to re-establish the rule. Some transit worker groups, meanwhile, have pushed for an end to the rule because they believe enforcement poses a safety risk to conductors.Ī federal judge voided the TSA’s mask mandate on April 19, finding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention overstepped its authority.

Kathy Hochul says an announcement about the mask mandates for New York public transportation will be made soon. Pressed on whether the drop in mask wearing concerned him, MTA CEO Janno Lieber in April said his team was focused on “other issues.” NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo instituted a $50 fine for mask non-compliance in September 2020 - but few tickets have been issued, according to MTA stats. MTA officials quietly stopped tracking mask mandate compliance in April, when the federal government’s nationwide mandate was overturned in court.īut MTA studies up until that point showed 64% mask usage - a steep decline from a year earlier when surveys showed nine in 10 subway riders masked up. “With respect to masks, it’s absolutely in conversation right now and we’ll be making some announcements on that very shortly,” Hochul responded to a question during an unrelated transit announcement at Penn Station. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday teased changes to New York’s public transportation mask mandate, which has been in place since April 2020. Zeldin vows to bypass lawmakers to scrap bail reform - but critics warn move ‘unconstitutional’

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Mta mask system