Looks like Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his staff finally got the message.
A week after The Post pointed out that the governor’s panel of aides sat mask-less during his indoor press briefings, plexiglass dividers were put up Monday to separate staffers, who also donned face coverings to safeguard against the spread of coronavirus.
The dividers were placed on the dais where Cuomo and his four aides, including state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and right-hand Melissa DeRosa, sat with masks on during the press conference in the governor’s Midtown office.
Cuomo did not have a mask on.
Last week, during a more-than-hour-long briefing at the Manhattan office, Cuomo did not wear a mask, nor did his five top aides on the dais, including Zucker and SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras.
They sat mask-less at the time even as Cuomo boasted to reporters that his push for mask-wearing helped curb New York’s COVID-19 cases.
During that briefing, the governor’s spokespeople, photographer and state trooper detail had masks on, as did all of the reporters in the room, which held about two dozen people in total.
In a tweet Monday, USA Today Albany reporter Jon Campbell pointed out that plexiglass dividers were put up after The Post “called Cuomo team out for not wearing masks during briefings.”
Cuomo senior adviser Rich Azzopardi snapped back and responded, “Actually It was after revised guidance from cdc [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] on Friday. Trust me when I tell you the @nypost has zero pull with us.”
His panel’s flaunting of what would seem to be a no-brainer precaution had continued even after the CDC warned on its website, “There is evidence that under certain conditions, people with COVID-19 seem to have infected others who were more than 6 feet away.
“These transmissions occurred within enclosed spaces that had inadequate ventilation.”
As coronavirus cases soared in the beginning of November, Dr. Emily Landon, the University of Chicago’s executive medical director for infection prevention and control, said studies have shown ventilation indoors is usually not enough to control the spread of the coronavirus without mask-wearing.
“So it seems that limiting indoor gatherings where people don’t wear masks is a key part to preventing COVID transmission — and it is,’’ she said at a press conference, according to video posted to ABC.
The governor continued holding the mask-less, divider-less briefings last week even after The Post first exposed the practice. Monday’s briefing, which included Dr. Anthony Fauci, was the first to more strictly follow the CDDC guidelines.
