New York City to end mask requirement for children under 5

New York City will soon end its mask requirement for children under the age of 5, Mayor Eric Adams (D) announced Tuesday.

If the city’s COVID-19 numbers remain low, masks will be optional for children ages 2 to 4 in school and day care starting on April 4, Adams said during a press conference. Those children are currently too young to be vaccinated.

A mask requirement for students in kindergarten through 12th grade was removed earlier this month, and Adams said city officials wanted to wait to make sure there was no increase in cases as a result. He said officials were also concerned about omicron’s higher rates of hospitalization in younger children.

Adams has been under pressure from some angry and frustrated parents who want the mask rule for the youngest kids lifted. 

Since taking office, Adams has prioritized a return to normalcy. Aside from mask mandates, Adams has also lifted proof-of-vaccination requirements for indoor activities.

Transmission rates and hospitalizations in the city have plummeted since the record-high explosion of cases driven by the omicron variant in the winter, but the numbers are beginning to creep back up.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says transmission in New York City is currently low, which means the agency feels widespread mask wearing is not needed. Hospitalizations and deaths, which are lagging indicators, have been decreasing significantly in recent weeks.

Ashwin Vasan, the city’s public health commissioner, said hospitals have plenty of capacity to handle new patients if there is another wave of infections.

Adams’s decision to remove the mandate comes as the more transmissible BA.2 subvariant of omicron continues to circulate, though officials have stressed they do not expect to see a steep surge of cases.

The BA.2 subvariant comprised 35 percent of all COVID-19 infections nationwide last week, according to data from the CDC. The subvariant accounts for about 30 percent of all cases in New York City.