ALBANY COUNTY — On Sunday afternoon, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that, starting March 2, the statewide school mask mandate is lifted.

Her announcement follows changes in federal guidance on mask-wearing, announced on Friday, which Hochul said “surprised a lot of people.”

 On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map on transmission rates showed most of the nation was colored red or orange, requiring masks to be worn indoors in public. That four-tiered system was based on the number of cases per 100,000 population and on the infection rate, that is, the number of positive tests.

Under the new system, there are three rather than four levels — low, medium, and high — “determined by looking at hospital beds being used, hospital admissions, and the total number of new COVID-19 cases in an area,” the CDC says.

Most counties in the United States are now designated as low or medium, meaning masks aren’t required. Only in counties labeled “high” are people advised to wear masks, according to CDC guidance.

Albany County is designated as medium — no masks required.

“Seventy percent of the population right now lives in an area that’s considered low to medium risk …,” said Hochul at her Sunday afternoon press conference at the capitol. “So given the decline in our rates, our hospitalization, strong vaccination rates and the CDC guidance, my friends the day has come.”

However, Hochul noted that some counties in New York State are designated as “high” by the CDC. “We will allow them the flexibility to determine what’s best for their county,” she said in terms of masking in schools.

“We would encourage them to take a look at this and follow the CDC, but this will no longer be a mandate,” the governor said.

She also said it would be up to parents if they want to have children, perhaps with compromised health, to continue to wear masks. “I want to send a loud message that we will have no tolerance in our school system or anywhere for any harassment or bullying of any child or their parents,” said Hochul.

She said the reason for waiting until Wednesday, March 2, to lift the mandate rather than on Monday, when most students return to school was because schools needed time to update guidance.

“We believe that by Wednesday, we’ll be able to have a situation where we’ll have the lifting of the mask requirement and children, that includes children who are in childcare centers, ages 2 and up who are covered right now,” said Hochul.

The Guilderland school district had already determined, if the state mandate was lifted, that masks would be “highly recommended” but not required. On Sunday evening, Guilderland Superintendent Marie Wiles sent out an email to district families, informing them that masks would be required in school and on buses on Monday and Tuesday, but not on Wednesday.

She also wrote of mask-wearing at school, “We recognize this is a personal choice and expect such decisions will be met with mutual respect by all.”

“We welcome this step toward normalcy,” said Andy Pallotta, president of New York State United Teachers, in a statement responding to Hochul’s announcement. “The governor is striking the right balance by empowering local officials to use data to determine if and when the mitigation strategies need to change in their areas. As the guidance changes, one thing must remain constant: It’s essential that districts work closely with educators to ensure there is confidence in their health and safety plans.”

Making the decision

Hochul, on Aug. 24, her first day as governor, had instituted the school mask mandate, which had lapsed at the end of Andrew Cuomo’s tenure. The health commissioner at the time, Howard Zucker, had left it up to individual school districts to decide on mask requirements.

On Feb. 10, as the Omicron surge declined, Hochul had lifted the mask-or-vax requirement for businesses, which she had instituted two months before, while keeping the school mandate in place. She said she would reevaluate the school mask mandate in early March after students were tested on their return to school from a mid-winter vacation.

“But I’ll tell you, when I look back at what was going on just a short time ago, I am so happy that we did have a mask requirement in place for schools,” said Hochul on Sunday.

“And at the time,” she went on, “we even had a requirement for two short months for businesses to make sure that their customers and patrons and employees were masked or vaccinated as well. That’s how we kept these numbers from getting even worse.”

Pressure had been mounting, not just from Republicans, to lift the school mask mandates as governors in nearby Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey had all announced that school mask mandates will be lifted at various times in March.

Hochul on Sunday displayed a series of graphs and charts. One showed the peak of COVID cases, as a seven-day average, at 90,132 on Jan. 7 and, as of Feb. 26, at 1,671, at pre-surge levels.

Another graph, with a similarly steep increase and decrease, showed hospitalizations from COVID-19 peaking on Jan. 11 at 12, 671 — and now at 1,911, again at pre-surge levels.

“This was my nightmare, when we were starting to see hospitals overcrowded again, evoking those horrific images we saw in the early months of the pandemic two years ago, when the hospitals were overflowing …,” said Hochul.

Still another chart showed the increasing vaccination progress since May 2021 for various age groups.

“All those vaccinations have made a true difference in our ability to get back to normal …,” said Hochul. “Over 95 percent plus New Yorkers have had at least one dose, 85.5 percent have had their series complete over age 18.”

A graph of school-aged children, ages 5 to 18, showed 832 cases at the start of the school year, up from 52 on July 2, soaring to 14,167 on Jan. 10, and then declining rapidly to 229 on Feb. 26.

“We’re at our lowest point in pediatric cases since July of 2021, and that was before the school year started. So this has been our trend over the school year. So as you can all see, looking at the data and the evidence that we follow, that we are in a much, much better place,” said Hochul.

She also said that pediatric hospitalizations numbered eight at the start of the school year, then peaked at 38; there are now seven children hospitalized with COVID statewide.

COVID testing will continue when students return to school on Monday, Hochul said, noting that 4.8 million test kits were sent to children before the current break. “We have another 4.8 million being sent this week,” she said.

Hochul also said that the state is developing an “early warning advanced system through wastewater surveillance” to monitor spikes in COVID cases.

“And we’re going to keep an eye on global trends,” she said, warning, “We need to retain the flexibility to make adjustments as needed.”

Masks still required

While the mandate for mask-wearing in schools will be lifted on March 2, requirements remain in effect “for the time being,” Hochul said, in state-regulated health-care settings, state-regulated adult-care facilities and nursing homes, in correctional facilities, in homeless shelters, and in domestic violence shelters.

“And as the federal government requires that they continue to be instituted on trains and airports and airplanes, buses, and train stations,” Hochul said.

She said she has called for a review of COVID cases in the facilities where masks are still required. “And within a short time,” she said, “we’ll have an analysis of whether or not, in fact, these are areas that remain vulnerable, or whether or not there’s been a plateauing and then a decline in cases over the similar amount of time.”