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NY State To Lift Most COVID Restrictions Once 70% Of Adults Partially Vaccinated
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 7, 2021
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Governor Andrew Cuomo's Flickr
By
Ben Yakas
Published Jun 7, 2021
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Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that the vast majority of New York's coronavirus restrictions and safety measures will be lifted once 70% of adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine—which he estimated could happen within the next two weeks.
All capacity restrictions, social distancing, cleaning and disinfection requirements, health screenings ,and contact tracing would be lifted. He added that some mask requirements could remain based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There will also be "institutional guidelines" for large venues (including ones with unvaccinated sections), schools, public transit, hospitals, and nursing homes.
WNYC/Gothamist reached out to the mayor's office to see if they were aware of this announcement before the governor made it. A spokesperson for the office said, "We’ll review the guidance but it’s clear that getting vaccinated is the key to making this the Summer of New York City. If you haven’t gotten your shot yet, there’s no day like today."
Cuomo didn't explain the rationale behind the 70% target nor why the state focused on at least one dose instead of full vaccination. Over the last two weeks, Public Health England has reported that the Delta variant, a mutant that originated in India, reduces the effectiveness of one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by 15-20%. But the governor noted that New York currently has one of the lowest positivity rates in the entire nation—and that all regions in the state are below 1% positivity for the first time since last August. He added that 68.6% of adult New Yorkers had received at least one dose of vaccine as of Monday.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is to remove the remaining COVID restrictions, get to a point where COVID is not inhibiting our society, not inhibiting our growth," Cuomo said. "When we hit 70%, then I feel comfortable saying to the people of this state, we can relax virtually all restrictions...We will be back to life as normal, or as normal as life can be as opposed to COVID."
Back at the start of May, Cuomo announced that most capacity restrictions for businesses, restaurants and cultural venues would be lifted by May 19th.
The governor acknowledged on Monday that vaccination rates have "slowed dramatically" and that 12-17-year-olds represent the age demographic with the lowest vaccine rate. Cuomo attributed this trend to the fact that they only became eligible recently and that messaging had been focused on adults and not teens for the past year. But he said his administration's focus was on targeting the zip codes with the lowest vaccination rates, which he plans to publish on a state website.
"What I'm asking [is], let's all focus-target these zip codes," Cuomo said. "City, state, voluntarily organizations, churches, community-based organizations, focus swat teams on these zip codes. Because [there's] a real chance, the numbers are very low, we can get a really significant increase there."
Cuomo also weighed in on the confusion about the state's school masking policy. On Friday, the New York state health commissioner said his department would move to no longer mandate masks for public school students, teachers and staff unless the CDC provided more evidence to support the policy. New York City officials and the state Department of Education countered and said they would continue to require masking at public schools.
The governor said Monday the CDC's nationwide recommendations for schools wouldn't be changed for several weeks, but that the state wants to modify the federal guidance by giving individual school districts the choice of whether or not to have children wear masks outdoors. He said this switch would align rules for summer camps and schools in the state. Kids don't currently have to wear masks outdoors at camps.
Cuomo also added that he thinks schools should be vaccinating adolescents. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced last week that NYC would begin piloting such clinics this summer at select locations around the city.
Tagged
Governor Andrew Cuomo
pandemic
COVID-19
coronavirus
new york
reopening
vaccine
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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