Cuomo to Lift All COVID Guidelines When Vaccination Rate Hits 70%, Now at 68.6%

By Yehudit Garmaise

    Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this morning that New York, which has vaccinated 68.6% of the state’s population, has to hit 70% before he feels comfortable relaxing all COVID restrictions.

   “When we vaccinate 1.4% more, we can lift all the restrictions: masks, health screenings, hygiene protocols, social distancing, and the potiential tracing ,” said the governor who said at that point, masks will only be required as recommended by the US Centers for the Disease Control and Institutions (CDC), which can create their own guidelines. "Masks will only be required as recommended by the CDC.

  "There still will be some institutional guidelines: large venues, schools, public transportation, hospitals, nursing homes, but when we hit 70%, we will be back to life as normal, or as normalized as you can be: Post-COVID."

    Gov. Cuomo also announced that New York will no longer require masks outside for schoolchildren, whether or not they are vaccinated.

   “The CDC has no objection to that,” said Gov. Cuomo, who explained that the state wants to align camp and school guidance. “When kids are outside of the school building for recess: they are hot and running around, so there is not a mandate for masks outside.”

   On Friday, Howard Zucker, MD, the state’s heath commissioner wrote the CDC's director Rochelle Walensky a letter that appeared to say that he would align camp and school mask guidance today, by not "requiring" and only "recommending" masks for unvaccinated school and camp children both inside and outside, barring her objections.

   However, the CDC did object, by saying that masking inside schools in still necessary for the rest of the school year.

   “The CDC was not comfortable with lifting the inside mask requirement,” the governor said. “They make a good case [for children to wear masks] on the inside and the potential hazards on the inside, and there are only a couple weeks left in school.”

     "We said on Friday we were asking the CDC for guidance, and we would tell the schools on Monday what the guidance was, which I just did.

   "We never said on Monday it goes into effect. We said, 'We will tell you after we talk to the CDC,' and they agreed with our decision to lift the mask mandate outside."