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On Friday, June 4, New York Health Commissioner Howard Zucker sent a letter to Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), asking to drop the mask mandates for students indoors as the state recovers from the worst of the pandemic.
The announcement led most to believe that masks would no longer be required for children in schools, guidance which Cuomo clarified during a briefing on Monday, June 7.
Cuomo said the CDC didn't plan to update its mask guidance for several weeks. In the interim, New York schools can ditch their mask mandate when students are outdoors, regardless of vaccination status, though it will remain in place indoors for the remainder of the school year.
“The numbers show that transmission among children is extremely low, especially in this state, and we spoke to the CDC, which has policy guidance for schools nationwide,” he said. “So their policy guidance is for the lowest positivity rate state and the highest positivity rate state, and they’re not going to change their guidance just for a few weeks.”
Cuomo said that whether or not to mandate masks outside is now up to individual school districts.
“We spoke to the CDC, and the CDC has no objection with that and is fine with it,” he added. “This will also allow us to align our camp and school guidance.”
The governor noted that with the school year winding down, it wouldn’t be viable for districts to remove and alter COVID safety measures that have been put in place since the heart of the pandemic.
“The CDC thinks that it is not advisable (to lift the indoor mask mandate), and that was the question we posed. We asked them on Friday for guidance, and we said we would tell the schools on Monday what they said,” Cuomo said. “We asked them what do you think is the case in New York.
“You have to remember the CDC is setting the policy for the entire nation. So you have New York, which is one of the lowest, then you have states with four, five times the positivity rate, so they have to cover both.
“So we talked inside mask and outside mask, and they were comfortable with the outside mask requirement.
“They make a good case on the inside and potential hazards, and there are only a couple weeks left, so we don't want to make any mistakes. We’re looking to get to September, is basically what (the CDC) is saying.”
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