NYC Mayor Eric Adams lifts mask mandates for toddlers: All you need to know

Masks will soon be optional for toddlers in New York City schools and day care facilities, Mayor Eric Adams stated Thursday, just two weeks before the last day of school.

He said in a news statement that the controversial face-covering regulation for children aged 2 to 4 in public schools and other city-run institutions will be revoked effective Monday, June 13.

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The last day of school in the municipal Department of Education is scheduled for June 27.

“I have always said that the science will guide us out of the pandemic, and because we have followed the data, which shows that cases are steadily falling, we‘ve beaten back the latest COVID-19 surge,” Adams announced in a statement.

The mayor first announced the policy’s inevitable end two months ago. On Thursday, he stated that City Hall “strongly” advises “New Yorkers of all ages to continue to wear masks indoors.”

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According to the statement, the city will continue to provide masks at DOE schools for individuals who wish to wear them.

“I’m with New York City parents and New Yorkers can trust this administration to continue to make the proper public health decisions to keep our kids safe,” he said.

The removal of the mask mandate for children under the age of five, who are not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, comes more than three months after Adams removed the need for older students, who can now get their shots.

Adams announced in late March that the limits for the Big Apple’s youngest schoolchildren and day care attendance would be lifted beginning April 4 — but then backtracked due to an increase in coronavirus cases.

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As parents organised protests and sought meetings with the mayor and the city health commissioner in April, Hizzoner indicated he planned to withdraw the mask mandate for toddlers “within a week or so.” But Adams did not stick to that schedule.

A month later, City Hall declared that masks would no longer be necessary in outdoor school facilities such as playgrounds, but that the requirement for inside settings would remain.

According to health department data, New York City’s seven-day overall COVID-19 positivity rate was 7.56 percent as of Monday, a decrease from the more than 9 percent peak in mid-May — but a considerable increase from the below 3 percent positivity rates reported in April.

The municipal health staff assessed in mid-May that the danger of COVID-19 spread was “high” as cases increased but hospitalizations remained low, but Adams chose not to reinstate an indoor-setting mask mandate, as the color-coded alert level guidelines indicated.