New York schools allow students to wear masks outside, but EVERYONE will require children to use indoor face covers
- New York City students will no longer have to wear masks outside when they return to school next week
- Masks will still be required indoors, as Governor Katie Hochul is yet to revoke indoor mandates
- Covid restrictions lifted across state as Covid cases dwindle, and Mayor Eric Adams says he “can’t wait” to lift the vaccine mandate
- Outdoor transmission of Covid is incredibly rare, and a study found that infected children do not produce virus particles at the same rate as adults.
Children c new York public schools will finally be able to take off their masks in the open next week, but face covers will still be needed when they are inside.
School Rector David Banks announced the move on Friday amid growing Covid cases and growing pressure from parents and the community to remove controversial school mask policies.
Once a Covid hotspot, Covid’s daily cases in New York are cratered, with the Big Apple recording only about 1,000 new cases a day – well below the peak of about 40,000 a day during the peak in early January. Omicron jump.
Children are also at low risk for the virus when they are infected, and outdoor transmission of Covid is rare – whether masked or not.
Children in New York schools will no longer have to wear masks outdoors when they return to class from Monday’s holiday
“I am so pleased to be able to make this exciting announcement and safely allow students and staff to take off their masks when they are outdoors in New York’s public schools,” Banks said in a statement.
The move comes as there are discussions to lift Covid’s restrictions across the city.
Earlier this week, new mayor Eric Adams said he “can’t wait” for the city’s health officials to give him the green light to lift mandates for vaccines and masks in the city.
New York Gov. Katie Hochul introduced a strict mask mandate late last year to fight Omicron’s jump, but lifted the indoor mask mandate for all but the schools earlier this month.
Masks are still required indoors in schools across the state on the orders of governors, and New York still has to obey state orders.
However, Covid’s cases in New York are on a downward trend, reinforcing calls for the remaining restrictions to be lifted.
In the last two weeks, the number of cases has halved, from 2,000 a day to 1,000 a day. Across the country, cases have fallen by 56 percent in the past two weeks.
Forcing children to wear masks outdoors is a policy beyond the typical recommendations of health leaders and is a strange policy based on available information about the virus.
Covid transmission outside is very rare. Because air is constantly circulating, aerosol droplets ejected by an infected person are quickly expelled and have little chance of finding their way into someone else.
Even for adults, the risk of catching or transmitting the virus is very low.
Children also do not spread viral particles at the same rate as adults, German study published earlier this week found that the already insignificant risk of outdoor transmission is even lower.
Young people are also among the least likely demographic groups to become infected or die from the disease, leading to questions about why vaccines or masks will be given to children in schools.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that children account for less than 0.1% of virus deaths since the beginning of the pandemic in early 2020.
A study conducted last fall by researchers at the University of Utah – before the lighter version of Omicron arrived – found that half of Covid’s pediatric cases were asymptomatic.
New York students are currently on vacation in February and will return to the classroom this week. Some hope the governor will revoke the mask’s mandate upon their return, although it is not known whether city officials will follow suit.