Feb. 11, 2023 -- Face masks will no longer be required in hospitals and other health care facilities in New York state regardless of a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status, the state Department of Health announced Friday.
The mask mandate expires Sunday. Health care facilities will be able to craft their own masking rules based on CDC guidance that takes local case counts, COVID transmission levels, and open hospital beds into account.
“The pandemic is not over, yet we are moving to a transition,” James McDonald, MD, the state’s acting health commissioner, said in a statement. He noted that the first COVID cases were detected in the state about three years ago.
Some health care systems are staying with masking rules for now.
The New York City public hospital system will still require masks, The New York Times reported. St. Peters Health Partners, which has five care facilities in the Albany area, will still require employees and patients to wear masks while transmission levels remain high in the region, the hospital group said in a statement.
The Greater NY Hospital Association is on board with the change.
“New York’s hospitals are well prepared to use their vast expertise and experience to make masking decisions that are in the best safety interests of their patients and workforce,” said association spokesman Brian Conway, according to The New York Times. “And they’ll make those decisions on a daily basis based on a variety of factors, including community transmission rates.”
The CDC dropped its mask requirement for health care facilities last fall.
On Monday, NYC Mayor Eric Adams lifted a vaccine mandate for municipal employees. Adams said “this is the right moment for this decision” because 96% of city workers and 80% of New Yorkers have been vaccinated, The Times said.
