NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York will not renew its COVID-19 "state of emergency" declaration when it expires on Thursday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
The state of emergency — which has been in place since March 7, 2020 — “is over,” Cuomo declared at a news briefing Wednesday morning.
New York state had seen a total of 76 COVID-19 cases when the governor first declared the emergency. As of Tuesday, the state had recorded a total of 2,094,923 cases.
“The emergency is over. The state of emergency that I had declared in consultation with Commissioner Zucker, a health emergency, it expires tomorrow,” Cuomo said at the briefing. “It will not be renewed. It will punctuate the expiration of the emergency that we have been in, because New Yorkers rallied, and essential workers rallied.”
While New York lifted most of its virus-related restrictions last week, its existing ones will remain in effect when the state of emergency expires, the governor noted.
“The CDC guidance still stays in effect,” Cuomo said. “The CDC mask requirement for unvaccinated individuals — public transportation, homeless settings, certain institutions."
"And local governments may continue, and I would urge them to continue, to enforce those mask requirements where they are in effect," he added.
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