Hochul mandates masks or vax proof for indoor public places starting Monday

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday announced that starting Monday, masks will be required to be worn in all indoor public places across the state unless businesses or venues implement a vaccine requirement.

The mandate will be in place until Jan. 15, at which point the state will reassess it.

New York is making the move to address the winter surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations statewide and align with the CDC’s recommendations for communities with substantial and high transmission, the Democrat governor said in a news release. The state health commissioner issued a determination backing the requirement.

This determination is based on New York’s weekly seven-day case rate as well as rising hospitalizations. The new business and venue requirements extend to customers and staff.

The new measure brings “added layers of mitigation during the holidays when more time is spent indoors shopping, gathering, and visiting holiday-themed destinations,” the governor’s office contends.

“I have warned for weeks that additional steps could be necessary, and now we are at that point based upon three metrics: Increasing cases, reduced hospital capacity, and insufficient vaccination rates in certain areas,” Hochul said.

Since Thanksgiving, the statewide seven-day average case rate has increased by 43 percent and hospitalizations have risen by 29 percent. While the percentage of New Yorkers fully vaccinated continues to increase — gaining 2 percent from Thanksgiving weekend to today — “the uptick is not fast enough to completely curb the spread of the virus, particularly among communities with low vaccination coverage,” the governor’s office stipulates.

The state is asking local health departments to enforce the new mandate. A violation of any provision of this measure is subject to all civil and criminal penalties, including a maximum fine of $1,000 for each violation, the governor’s office says.

Businesses and venues that implement a proof-of-vaccination requirement can accept Excelsior Pass, Excelsior Pass Plus, SMART health cards issued outside of New York state, or a CDC vaccination card. In accordance with CDC’s definition of fully vaccinated, full-course vaccination is defined as 14 days past an individual’s last vaccination dose in the person’s initial vaccine series (14 days past the second shot of a two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine; 14 days past the one-shot Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine). The state also accepts WHO-approved vaccines for these purposes. 

Businesses and venues that implement a mask requirement have to make sure all patrons two years and older wear a mask at all times while indoors.

Unvaccinated individuals continue to be responsible for wearing masks, in line with federal CDC guidance. Further, the state’s masking requirements continue to be in effect for pre-K to grade 12 schools, public transit, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, nursing homes, and health-care settings, per CDC guidelines.

Reaction

New York State Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay (R–Pulaski) issued a statement Friday rebuking Hochul for her new mask order.

“Despite 80 percent of adults in New York being fully vaccinated, we are once again being force-fed another statewide mandate announced without notice, with little information, from a podium at a press conference. Gov. Hochul is using the same heavy-handed process that we grew all too familiar with — and tired of — under her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo,” Barclay said. “Vaccination rates are increasing, yet the state’s response is reminiscent of days prior to the development of a vaccine when COVID infection rates were dramatically higher. Putting more costly restrictions on small businesses will do more harm than good to the job-creators still trying to regain their footing after the lockdowns of 2020.”

He continued, “Executive Chamber edicts and policy-by-press release aren’t making the situation any better. The staffing crisis we’re seeing in our hospitals is a self-inflicted wound exacerbated by Gov. Hochul’s employee mandate that offered no flexibility to frontline workers and removed caregivers from care settings. There is no denying that it has severely compromised the state’s health care system at the exact moment it can least afford it.

 We are at a point where New York state should be shedding mandates, past the need for more sweeping executive actions and moving forward. Unfortunately, today we took several steps backward.”

Updated 12/10/21 at 2:14 p.m. with Barclay statement.