NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- Mayor Eric Adams plans to appeal a Staten Island Supreme Court judgment that struck down the city’s mask mandate for children ages two to four he announced at a press conference on Friday.
Cases have been steadily rising in New York City as the BA.2 sub-variant of omicron has spread.
The city filed for a stay alongside their appeal that would allow the mandate to continue while courts consider the ruling of Judge Ralph Porzio, who said he found mask mandates for children under to five to be unreasonable earlier on Friday.
Whether or not the mask mandate continues for young children on Monday will depend on how fast the courts move on considering Adams’ request for a stay.
"I think it's imperative that due to the rise in cases that we're seeing, as slight as they are, our plans were to take a week to assess the numbers before removing masks for 2 to 4 years old, but of course, we're going to comply with any ruling form the judge," said Adams. "Our legal team is going to put in place an appeal and ask for a stay, we truly believe this is within our powers to execute what's best for the city of New York."
He said it’s time to be “prepared, not panicked,” and that if COVID-19 case rates continue their upward trend, the city is likely to move to a higher risk level and re-implement some safety measures.
BA.2 represented 78% of coronavirus cases in the city as of last week, according to New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan.
“Cases are definitively rising and it’s gotten our attention,” he said at the press conference.
The Adams administration recommended wearing a mask indoors, but is not yet at the point of re-instating other mandates.
Vasan encouraged the federal government to continue dedicating resources to combatting COVID-19 and chided them for reducing the allocation of monoclonal antibodies to New York City.
The city plans to continue testing and tracing efforts and will distribute 6.3 million additional at-home tests in the coming weeks.
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