Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It was Monday night when a Nassau County Supreme Court judge voided the New York State mask mandate set by Gov. Kathy Hochul, deeming it unconstitutional, as it was "improperly enacted without approval from the state Legislature."
It didn't take long for the state to file an appeal of the lower court's decision, and less than 24 hours later, a New York appeals judge stayed the indoor mask mandate.
"As Governor, my top priority is protecting the people of this state," Gov. Hochul said Tuesday afternoon in a statement released shortly after the decision. "These measures are critical tools to prevent the spread of COVID-19, make schools and businesses safe, and save lives. I commend the Attorney General for her defense of the health and safety of New Yorkers, and applaud the Appellate Division, Second Department for siding with common sense and granting an interim stay to keep the state's important masking regulations in place. We will not stop fighting to protect New Yorkers, and we are confident we will continue to prevail."
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Before Tuesday's stay was issued by the Second Appellate Division court judge, Monday's decision by the New York State Supreme Court judge on Long Island certainly created some confusion for many across the state, especially in Erie County.
This included a situation at Grand Island High School, where a dozen students were kept out of class for refusing to wear a mask on Tuesday. One student even went as far to believe the court ruling allowed him to go to school without needing to wear a mask.
However, that was far from the case, according to Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz.
"Because we've continued [the mask mandate] since I instituted it on Nov. 23, the emergency order in regards to emergency masking requiring all patrons and public facing staff and indoor locations to wear masks is still in effect," Poloncarz said during his weekly COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday. "It has not been ruled unconstitutional, and the decision by the judge does not affect it at all because it was based on a totally different part of the law."
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As Poloncarz explained on Tuesday, the court ruling from Long Island was based solely on the state mandate and how it was issued. The decision has no bearing on any mask mandate at a local level, or a similar one currently in place in the New York City area.
This means that masks must continue to be worn in Erie County inside all public locations, including bars and restaurants, hotels, barbershops, beauty parlors, bowling alleys, shopping centers, malls, etc. This also includes all governmental buildings in the county, where public schools fall into the category of "governmental buildings."
"Children would not have to wear them if they were outside, which I don't think there's many classes outside now because of the cold, but indoor locations; the teachers, the parents, if the parents go to pick up their child they have to wear a mask. That is considered a public location," Poloncarz explained. "Private location would be a business that does not invite the public to it. The Governor's rule affected all locations, private and public. [Erie County's] was just public locations, but because children are coming back-and-forth every day and parents come in and out, guardians come in and out... schools are covered, and therefore masks must be worn."
While Erie County is still enforcing its mask mandate, it is also the call of the New York State Education Department. Monday's decision had only impacted the rule that was issued by the Health Commissioner, Mary Bassett. It did not affect the Education Department's own rule, along with Erie County's.
"New York State Education Department has a rule associated with it. It doesn't matter in some ways whether it's New York State Education or Erie County, the rule's in effect," Poloncarz stated. "Masks need to be worn under the rules that we have in place right now in Erie County and all indoor public locations."
While there is now clarity on the mask mandate from both a local and statewide level, Gov. Hochul is still encouraging people, especially parents and students at schools, to continue wearing masks.
"The last thing I want to see is a different trend because people gave up on [masking]," Gov. Hochul said during her COVID-19 briefing in Syracuse on Tuesday. "I am so looking forward to the day to say [masks] are history. We don't have to do this any longer. All of us are. I don't want to keep any requirements, safety in place a day longer than necessary, but I will not do it a day before we can do it safely. And that is my commitment."
Ever since taking office as Governor back in August, Hochul's goal has been to keep kids in school and in the classroom as much as possible with the COVID-19 pandemic still being a nationwide issue. While school districts across the state are just starting their own test-to-stay programs to keep more kids in school, Hochul looks to the mask mandate as a big reason for kids not having to miss any extended periods of school.
"Look at what's happening around the rest of the country. People aren't taking the same steps we took, they were not aggressive in getting testing kits out, they don't have a mask requirement," Gov. Hochul said. "Kids were getting sick, they're going home and their educations have been disrupted. I didn't want to see that happen here in the state of New York."
So when could we see the end of the mask mandate, at least in Erie County?
Poloncarz has been pleased to see the COVID-19 case numbers and hospitalization numbers continuing to trend downwards. He even hinted that if the trends continue, a possible lifting of the mask mandate could come as soon as some time in February. However, Poloncarz says "we're just not there yet."
"The mask mandate was not put in place to make people's lives miserable. It was to prevent our hospitals from drowning in COVID patients," Poloncarz said. "It worked during the Delta wave. We brought the numbers down, and then Omicron hit, and we saw a ridiculous number of new cases.
"It's not going to be something we're going to have to react to forever, but we're still seeing high numbers, and as those numbers go down and the hospitalizations go down, we'll relook at the numbers and if we believe it's now safe to lift the mask mandate, we will do so. We do not want to keep it on forever."
The County Executive believes the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is burning itself out, because it infected so many people already in the region. While Poloncarz acknowledged people will still likely catch it in the upcoming weeks, he still wants to see hospitalization numbers continue to drop to a point where Erie County would feel comfortable lifting the mask mandate.