Governors in two more states announced plans to lift mask mandates on Wednesday as the Omicron variant loosened its grip on the United States and politicians who have long championed some of the country’s strictest virus rules faced intense pressure to attempt to return to a more normal life.
The decisions by the Democratic governor of New York, who said the state would allow its mask-or-vaccine indoor mandate to expire, and by the Republican governor of Massachusetts, who said he would not extend a mask requirement in schools, came amid plummeting case numbers, declining hospitalizations and polling that shows bipartisan exhaustion with the pandemic.
The Massachusetts school mask mandate will end on Feb. 28, Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Wednesday. Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York then announced that her state’s move will take effect this week, but has said she needs more time to make a decision on masks in schools.
The governors’ moves step up the pressure on the Biden administration, and in particular on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to offer guidance to the states on mask wearing and other mitigation measures.
The White House has been quietly meeting with outside health experts to plan a pandemic exit strategy and a transition to a “new normal,” but the behind-the-scenes effort is crashing into a public reality of the string of blue-state governors have gotten ahead of President Biden by suddenly abandoning their mask mandates.
“We are working on that guidance; we are working on following the trends for the moment,” the C.D.C.’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said at a briefing on Wednesday. But she cautioned, “Our hospitalizations are still high, our death rates are still high. so as we work toward that and as we are encouraged by the current trends, we are not there yet.”
Governor Hochul said New York State’s recovery from the Omicron surge had improved dramatically and the time had come to end its mandate requiring proof of full vaccination or mask-wearing in indoor public spaces.
“Numbers are coming down, and it is time to adapt,” she said.
The moves herald a new phase of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, where regions that have taken a cautious approach for two years are relaxing their guard as the Omicron variant recedes. Other recent moves to ease mask mandates have come from Democratic governors in states like New Jersey, Connecticut and Oregon, and an announcement is expected on Wednesday in Illinois.
Gov. John Carney of Delaware rescinded his state’s general indoor mask mandate this week, but extended it for schools until the end of March. Officials in California said they are working to “update” their school masking rules in light of decreasing transmission rates.
The moves by governors respond to growing public exhaustion with pandemic restrictions in the United States. But there is no consensus among public health experts about whether ending mask mandates now is wise or premature.
In-school transmission of the virus has occurred on only a limited scale throughout the pandemic. While the federal C.D.C. continues to recommend universal mask-wearing in schools, many independent public health experts now say that masks can hinder learning and socialization, and provide little benefit in regions where infection rates are relatively low and vaccination rates are relatively high.
In Massachusetts, high vaccination rates and the wide availability of free home rapid tests for school employees and students “makes it possible for us to give our kids what they have earned — the familiar, welcome, nurturing classroom that they are used to,” Mr. Baker said at a news conference announcing his move.
He said the state would support individuals who continue to choose to wear masks in schools, and that they should feel comfortable doing so.
As elsewhere, the governor’s decision in Massachusetts does not mean all students will be able to unmask on March 1. Rather, it allows local districts to follow their own policies, many of which have been painstakingly negotiated among school boards, district officials and teachers’ unions. School leaders were notified of the decision in an online meeting Wednesday morning.
The debate over whether to keep requiring masks in schools is expected to be intense in many Massachusetts communities, where the policy is seen not only as a public health tool protecting the vulnerable, but also as a symbol of progressive values.
The Boston public school system has indicated that it does not plan to immediately lift its masking requirement, regardless of the state’s decision. In Newton, an affluent suburb, a medical advisory group will meet later this month to advise the district on what to do. The most prominent member of the panel — Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and a parent in the district — has become an outspoken advocate of dropping mask requirements for students.
“I think it’s both safe and reasonable,” Dr. Jha said in an interview. “If not now, when? Because I don’t foresee a time in the next couple of years that will necessarily be that much better.”
