Masks mandatory at schools throughout NY, Hochul says
Newly installed Gov. Kathy Hochul on Tuesday said she was mandating masks for students and staff at schools throughout the state, and ordered mandatory COVID-19 vaccines for staff, or an option of weekly testing.
“I’m immediately directing the Department of Health to institute universal masking for anyone entering our schools,” Hochul said.
Hochul said the moves were necessary to help bring under control the surging delta variant. While New York has made some progress in the fight against COVID-19, she said, “Too many are yet not vaccinated, putting themselves and their communities at risk.”
“Priority number one — we get children back to school and protect the environment so they can learn and everyone is safe,” she said. “As a result, we need to require vaccinations for all school personnel with an option to test out weekly, at least for now.”
This announcement came just before Jericho schools brought their 3,200 students back with five days a week of in-class instruction on Thursday morning — the first of the Long Island school systems to start classes amid continued anti-COVID safeguards. See how the first day went.
Plus: How have Long Island educators prepared for this school year and what did they learn from last year? Local teachers discuss the year, the delta variant and more in this Newsday Live webinar.
See a list of reopening plans and mask policies that school districts around Long Island have announced so far.
The chart below shows the number of new daily cases confirmed on Long Island in recent days.
Search a map of new cases and vaccination rates, and view more charts here showing the latest local trends in vaccinations, testing, hospitalizations, deaths and more.
See more coronavirus headlines from this week below.
Erin Serpico is an assistant web producer who joined Newsday in November 2018. Originally from New Jersey, she now covers community events and produces local content for newsday.com while also helping run the homepage.
