[ad_1]
Gov. Kathy Hochul will lift her business mask mandate on Wednesday as New York emerges from a deadly wave of Omicron cases, a source confirmed to The Post.
But the governor, who will make the announcement during an 11 a.m. press conference, will wait to decide if she’ll do the same for schools.
While the mandate is being dropped statewide, it will remain “optional for counties and business,” another source added.
New York City is expected to keep the mandate in place and still recommend that people wear masks, sources told The Post.
The mandate ordered Empire State businesses without vaccination requirements to compel workers, customers and visitors to wear masks in most public indoor settings, including grocery stores, shops and offices.
The masking order was only put in place in December when cases started to surge due to the new COVID variant.
The governor is now facing mounting pressure to also lift her school mask mandate after her counterparts in Connecticut and New Jersey announced earlier this week they’ll be dropping their edicts by the end of February or March.
Hochul had met with school administrators and teacher unions on Tuesday, but told them she wants to wait until after the upcoming mid-winter break — the week of Feb. 21 — before making a final decision.
She had already been hinting that the school masking requirements, which were put in place before the school year began, would remain for now.
Hochul said she wanted more students to get vaccinated before she dropped the mandate requiring them to mask up in classrooms.
[ad_2]