Mayor Eric Adams of New York City will end the mask mandate for 2- to 4-year-old children who attend day care and preschool on Monday, he said Thursday, because the city is past the peak of its latest wave of coronavirus cases.
“I have always said that the science will guide us out of the pandemic, and because we have followed the data, which shows that cases are steadily falling, we’ve beaten back the latest Covid-19 surge,” said Mayor Adams in a statement.
The city is still strongly recommending that masks be worn indoors for people of all ages, however, as new, confirmed cases still remain at a high level despite recent declines. The city’s alert level is also still orange, or high, but Mayor Adams has repeatedly said he will remove or implement mandates as he and his advisers see fit, rather than wait for his alert system to trigger actions.