NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday that the city will extend the mask mandate for daycare and 3-K schools by a week as COVID-19 cases rise.
"As I have said, I want to remove masks and see our babies’ faces, but we have to do it when the science says it is safe to do so," said Adams. "As cases have continued to rise, we are prepared, not panicked, so now is not the time to remove masks for our youngest New Yorkers."
The mandate was slated to be lifted Monday but the spread of the BA.2 sub-variant led to a delay.
The Department of Health’s COVID-19 alert level in New York City is currently at the lowest tier, but cases have more than tripled since the beginning of March and concerns of BA.2 have city officials watching closely for a full-blown resurgence.
BA.2 is more contagious than Omicron, which is more contagious than Delta which was more contagious than the original strain of COVID-19. There’s no evidence to suggest that it causes more serious illness though.
The new subvariant accounts for 84% of cases in New York state as of Wednesday.
The mask mandate targeting the youngest New Yorkers has been controversial. A Staten Island judge nixed the mandate on April 1, but the city sued for a stay on the judge's order until an appeal could be heard — allowing the mandate to continue.
Adams told 1010 WINS he hopes to lift the mandate “within a week or so,” but emphasized that ultimately, he will decide based on his health team’s recommendation.
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