NYC Mask Mandate Indoors an Option if Needed, Mayor Says, as 23 Nations Report Omicron
What to Know
- New York City officials say a mask mandate option is available should the data warrant it, but that hasn’t happened at this point and they continue to push vaccinations for people of all ages (and boosters)
- The questions come amid the threat of a new variant, omicron, that has not yet been identified in the United States but appears to be more contagious than earlier strains and may pose higher reinfection risk
- Omicron was identified in South Africa a week ago and has since been detected in 20-plus other countries; it has been confirmed in Canada, and U.S. officials say it’s just a matter of time before it’s found here
New York City is reserving the right to reimpose indoor face mask mandates for all people regardless of vaccination status should the emergence of the omicron variant and potential holiday-related COVID spikes warrant it, but that doesn’t appear to be the case just yet, outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio reiterated Wednesday.
The Democrat, who has been pressed repeatedly on the issue since he and his top health officials dropped a new mask advisory this week recommending use for all indoors amid the anticipated threats, said a new face-covering mandate is “an option if we get specific data that tells us it’s needed.”
That data isn’t there at this point, he said.
Instead, de Blasio doubled down on vaccination, saying it comes down to what officials think will ultimately “work” as far as eradicating the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We believe vaccination is the central strategy and we’ve got to keep all the focus on vaccination. I never want people to think that a mask takes the place of vaccination. It does not,” the mayor said. “Vaccination is the way to stop COVID. We’ve still got a lot of young people who are not vaccinated, we’ve got a lot of adults who can still be vaccinated, we’ve certainly got millions of people who can get a booster.”
De Blasio’s is a common refrain among elected Democrats across the U.S. as they seek to shore up defenses against the still-present threat of the delta variant and plan for the unknowns that omicron could bring once its presence is confirmed.
Experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci do believe it already is in the United States, though such a small subsample of confirmed COVID cases are genetically sequenced (3.5% of samples in New York, per the latest CDC data, for example) to isolate variants that, as Americans have learned, it takes time to detect new ones.
Officials say, though, it’s only a matter of time. Omicron was first detected in South Africa and has since seen confirmed spread to the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, Spain, Saudi Arabi, Portugal, Norway, Italy, Germany, France, Denmark, Japan, the Netherlands and at least a half-dozen other countries. Its emergence has prompted nations to reimplement travel bans or pause easing restrictions — and the United States is expected to toughen testing requirements within days.
Mutations are par for the course for viruses of any kinds, though this latest COVID strain first identified in South Africa has already been deemed a variant of concern by the World Health Organization because the evidence to date suggests it might be more transmissible than earlier strains, as delta was, and more prone to reinfection.
While the share of COVID breakthrough cases has risen markedly in recent months at city, state and national levels because of delta and waning immunity, that share is still just a small fraction of all new infections. And research continues to show all of the federally authorized vaccines are exceptionally effective at preventing severe COVID-related illness and death among fully vaccinated people of all ages.
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In New York, fully vaccinated New Yorkers had a 78.3% lower chance of becoming a COVID-19 case compared to unvaccinated New Yorkers in the week of Nov. 1 and a 94.4% lower chance of being hospitalized for COVID, state data shows. The case number declined in mid-July amid delta’s spread but never fell below 73% and vaccine effectiveness for fully vaccinated New Yorkers vs. non-vaccinated New Yorkers hit a low of 89.8% a full month earlier. See more breakthrough data here.
Still, the perceived looming presence of yet another roadblock at all levels of recovery from this now years-long pandemic — and the ongoing pain its still-unraveling catastrophe has caused millions of people across the world — is stoking anxiety once again in the minds of many as well as early action from those elected.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is running on the Democratic ticket for 2022, implemented a state of emergency over the weekend to expedite access to federal resources as needed and prepare a hospital surge-and-flex program for the same.
In a statement, Hochul acknowledged omicron hasn’t been found here yet but said “it’s coming.” And on Monday, she said hospitals in the state experiencing a shortage of beds must call off all non-urgent surgeries starting this Friday.
The governor had said 32 to 36 hospitals in upstate New York with bed capacity below 10% could potentially have to halt performing elective surgeries. State health officials will reevaluate those specific hospitals by mid-January, Hochul said.
As for a statewide mask mandate, the governor said she didn’t that would do much to stop potential spread, citing noncompliance among certain crowds in certain lower vaccination rate parts of the state as an ongoing frustration.
“That is an option, but there is a reality: The people who won’t get vaccinated are probably the same people who won’t wear a mask as well,” Hochul said.
In the meantime, she encouraged everyone to double down on precautionary measures: mask-wearing, hand-washing and getting vaccinated, saying the latter “remains one of our greatest weapons in fighting the pandemic.”
The CDC has underscored the points by Hochul and de Blasio and similar to New York City recommends wearing a mask in indoor public places, especially those perceived to be higher risk settings, as a precaution.
Though WHO has labeled omicron a variant of concern, top health officials in the U.S. and New York City say more research is needed to conclude that definitively.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health in the United States, has emphasized that there is no data yet that suggests the new variant causes more serious illness than the previous COVID-19 variant. Collins acknowledged it does appear, at least based on current data available, to be more contagious.
New York City officials acknowledge the same.
“We do not yet have reliable evidence about whether this variant is easier to spread, more likely to lead to severe illness or able to avoid antibodies from vaccines or previous infections. However, there are early signs it may have the ability to spread rapidly,” the city’s COVID website reads.
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