Masks Off Outside Now OK For NY Schools: Cuomo

HUDSON VALLEY, NY — After a confusing weekend that left some school districts thinking masks didn't need to be worn inside beginning Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the indoor mask mandate will remain in place.

However, he said during a morning news conference that students at New York schools no longer have to wear masks while outside.

The announcement came after a few days of uncertainty, after news Friday afternoon that the mask mandate would be lifted unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended otherwise.

In a letter to Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the CDC, state Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said Friday that as of Monday, masks in schools would be strongly encouraged indoors, but wouldn't be required.

There would be no enforcement, he said, unless the CDC advised the state before Monday of contrary data or science. As of Sunday night, the CDC had not responded to the letter.

Cuomo said Monday he had never said anything about a decision regarding masks being lifted, despite Zucker's letter. He told reporters at the news briefing that he had said a decision would be rendered Monday.

"There was no confusion," Cuomo said. "We asked the CDC for guidance and said we would tell the schools on Monday."

At the briefing, the governor said the state had spoken with the CDC, which sets policy guidance for schools nationwide. The federal health organization agreed to drop the outdoor mask mandate for students in New York, but felt more comfortable with leaving kids masked indoors until the end of the school year which is in two weeks.

Cuomo said the decision whether to dispense with masks outdoors ultimately remains up to the individual school districts and aligns school and camp guidance statewide.

"If you can go to camp and run around and play volleyball and not wear a mask," he said, children should be able to do the same thing at schools.

Dr. David Mauricio, the superintendent for the Peekskill City School District, sent a letter to the community Saturday saying that there might be a modification to the state's mask guidance Monday.

"For now, Peekskill City School District's current mask protocols will remain in effect until we receive and review official guidance from the Westchester County Department of Health," he said. "At such time, we will make a decision as to whether we will modify our current practices."

The Wappingers Central School District put out a message Sunday that it would be holding classes remotely Monday due to the predicted high temperatures and heat advisory.

District officials also said there was confusion surrounding the state's messages on the use of masks in schools.

"We will always put the health of our students and staff first," the message said. "We will seek to obtain further clarification from the state throughout the day tomorrow, and we will provide our community with an update as well."

State Sen. Mike Martucci, R-Wawayanda, in a statement released Monday, questioned who was running the federal and state agencies involved in the guidance decisions.

He said parents and schoolchildren "have been batted around like tennis balls" since the Zucker letter was released Friday.

"State and local governments have the authority to lift mask mandates for our kids," Martucci said. "The majority of states ended mask requirements in schools long ago. We should immediately do so now."

White Plains Superintendent Joseph Ricca he thought the confusion was generated by people reading a lot into Zucker's letter.

To him, the letter didn't mean that as of Monday morning all the students in White Plains could take off their masks inside schools.

Ricca said, with only a couple weeks left in the school year, it didn't make sense to have a major policy change.

He said, with any proposed change in policy, there is a process that has to be followed.

Now that Cuomo has said that students may take off masks when outdoors, Ricca said he will take that recommendation to his reopening committee to consider. Once the committee has made its decision, it will be communicated to the public.

At the end of the school year, new guidance policies will be considered with an eye toward the fall semester, he said.

"Everyone is trying to do their best," Ricca said. With the increase in vaccination rates and the decrease in positivity rates, "because of all the hard work of New Yorkers, this is where we want to be."

Cuomo urged school districts to focus on vaccinating 12- to 17-year-olds now while they are captive audiences. Once the summer break begins, the students will be nowhere to be found.

"You want to start the new school year in September with a clean slate," Cuomo said.

The governor said that vaccinations need to continue so New York can reach a vaccination rate of 70 percent at which point all coronavirus restrictions can be dropped.

The state is only 1.4 percent away from hitting that goal, Cuomo said.

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