Assuming COVID-19 case rates remain steady, students will be able to remove their masks in public school classrooms beginning next Monday.
That's welcome news to some students tired of wearing the masks.
"It always gets wet when I wear it,” a Queens elementary school student said.
It’s also welcome news to some parents, who say asking children to mask up all day has put too much of the pandemic burden on them instead of adults.
“We haven’t even as adults gotten used to how to breathe with a mask on yet so we don’t want to put the kids through a difficult time and it’s just another hassle for them in school, a lot of kids don’t even keep on the mask,” the student’s dad said.
It's a sudden shift in pandemic policy.
Gov. Kathy Hochul initially said she'd make a decision on the statewide school mask mandate after reviewing data collected this week, as children return from winter break. Instead, she announced on Sunday she'd lift it Wednesday.
Hours later, Mayor Eric Adams said he'd follow suit, and, barring an unforeseen increase in cases, he will lift the city’s mandate starting Monday.
Teacher Wendy Binkowitz said she hates teaching in a mask, but isn't ready to remove hers.
“Kids have relatives and families that are vulnerable still, and it’s not completely gone, so it’s kind of a tricky thing. It was kind of a surprise that it was so fast,” she said.
Teacher Liat Olenick is immunosuppressed and worries what the decision will mean for teachers, parents and children like her.
“It’s a really hard position to be in, to know, to be someone who has a complicated medical history, and is more vulnerable. I just feel kind of abandoned," she said. “And it’s not just the school decision, the CDC kind of did the same thing and told immunocompromised people, you know, you’re on your own.”
While all school staff must be vaccinated, new data shows that student vaccination varies widely across the city, which may factor into how comfortable students and staff feel removing their masks.
On Staten Island, just 47% of students are vaccinated with at least one dose, compared to 72% in Manhattan. And at the school level, the population of students with at least one dose ranged from just 12% at a Staten Island elementary school to 94% at a Manhattan high school.