NY State to Drop Mask Mandate for Summer Camps and Schools this Monday

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced today that the NY state plans to eliminate its indoor mask requirement for students and adults in all schools and camps statewide starting Monday pending any objections from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

Masks will be encouraged but not required indoors for students, campers, staff, teachers and counselors regardless of age or vaccination status. Outdoor masking is already encouraged at this point for non-vaccinated campers and counselors in higher-risk circumstances, according to updated guidance for camps released by the state in May.

Fully vaccinated students and staff of any age do not need to wear masks in any indoor or outdoors since Cuomo adopted the latest CDC guidance. The anticipated change would not affect current state rules around masking for non-vaccinated people in other places like subways, buses and airports.

Individual schools and camps will be allowed to implement tougher standards if they so choose to do so. Such was the case when Governor Cuomo adopted the CDC's mask guidance for vaccinated people on New York's big reopening day last month.

The changes are pending any CDC objections.

View the letter from the Commissioner of the NY State Department of Health Commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, to the CDC regarding the changes here.

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Submitted by Yorktown, NY

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