Masking for children under 5 in New York City will become optional next month if current COVID-19 trends hold, Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.
Lifting the mandate would mean that children under 5 in public schools and day care facilities would no longer be required to wear masks as of April 4, ending the last of the city’s face mask requirements for the general public.
“If the numbers continue to show a low level of risk, masks will be optional for 2 to 4-year-old students in schools and in daycare,” he said during a press conference Tuesday. “We can’t go by the noise. We have to go by the science. But we want to see our babies’ faces.”
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There has been a “vociferous” debate about the mask requirement for children under 5, particularly since New York City axed the masking requirement for children over 5 in public schools, Adams noted. He has faced pressure for weeks to nix the rule from parents concerned about the mental toll of masking children despite others urging him to retain the provision due to concerns over COVID-19.
Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not recommend children under 5 get vaccinated against COVID-19, but it does recommend the vaccine for children over 5.
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The spread of COVID-19 spread in the city has dipped to one of its lowest levels since the pandemic began after coming out of pandemic highs from the omicron wave in January. Adams noted that the COVID-19 spread remained low even after his administration nixed the mask requirement for children over 5 and vowed to enact policies to ensure a COVID-19 resurgence does not bring about a return of the shutdowns.
Between 0.1% and 1.5% of COVID-19 cases in children in the United States led to hospitalization, and 0.00% to 0.01% of COVID-19 cases in children lead to deaths, according to an analysis by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
