By GREGORY ZELLER //
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas 2020: With the omicron variant spreading and national COVID cases rising fast, Albany has reinstated public mask-wearing protocols.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced the plan on Friday and put it into effect on Monday, requiring that facemasks be worn in all indoor public places unless businesses or venues create and enforce a vaccine requirement for visitors.
In a list of frequently asked questions (and answers) also issued Monday, the New York State Department of Health defines an “indoor public place” as “any indoor space that is not a private residence … [including] indoor entertainment venues, concert halls, indoor sports stadiums, recreational spaces, restaurants, office buildings, shopping centers, grocery stores, pharmacies, houses of worship and common areas in residential buildings.”
Naturally, the new mask mandate has met with resistance from many state residents and conservative lawmakers. Several Republican county executives – including Nassau County Executive-elect Bruce Blakeman, who’s set to take office Jan. 1 – said Tuesday they would not comply with the Democratic governor’s order.
With local health departments in charge of inspection and enforcement, noncompliant businesses face potential penalties including a $1,000 fine for each documented violation.
Faceoff: A frustrating requirement, according to Gov. Hochul, especially with vaccines readily available.
New York was one of several states reimposing indoor mask mandates this week, including Illinois, Nevada, Hawaii and others. The current plan is to keep the New York mask mandates in effect through Jan. 15, at which time Albany will re-evaluate based on updated conditions.
With 800,000 Americans now confirmed killed by the novel coronavirus – more than any other nation – some parts of the country are currently facing the worst outbreaks of the entire pandemic.
The NYS Health Department reported Tuesday that COVID cases per 100,000 New York residents were up 58 percent since Thanksgiving, with the statewide COVID-related hospitalization rate soaring 70 percent since the fourth Thursday in November – an irrefutable “holiday surge,” according to Hochul, who said the reinstated mask requirements are designed to “protect the health of New Yorkers and the health of our economy.”
Like many others, including the reinstated mask mandate’s loudest opponents, the governor shared “frustration that that we have gotten to this point” – especially flummoxing, she noted, “with the vaccine at our disposal.”
She did not draw a direct parallel between those who won’t wear a mask and those who won’t be vaccinated, though Hochul did thank “the millions of New Yorkers who have done the right thing to get fully vaccinated.”
“We are all in this together,” the governor added. “If others will follow suit, [mask mandates] will no longer be necessary.”
