Just In: New York Officially Drops Indoor Mask Mandate For Schools

Starting on Wednesday, March 2, New York public schools will no longer require children to wear masks indoors.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced the decision on Sunday — setting a precedent for fellow Blue states to follow after New York's difficult battle with COVID for the past two years.

“Given the decline in our rates, our hospitalizations, strong vaccination rates and the CDC guidance, we, friends, the day has come,” Hochul said in a public announcement. “Today we are going to be announcing that would be lifting the statewide mask requirement in schools, and that’ll be effective this Wednesday, March 2.”

As relayed by OutKick's Sam Amico, the CDC updated its guidelines Friday and instructed the majority of Americans to forego mask-wearing, also thanks to two years of data that challenged the efficiency of masks.

Hochul dropped the state's indoor mask mandate for businesses earlier this month and faced some pressure to extend the eased ruling to children in schools.

The governor assured that if COVID data still trended in the right direction by March, the state would begin to consider dropping the remaining mask mandate.

Stay tuned with OutKick as details on the story develop.

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