Albany, NY — Even after a judge in the Court of Appeals on Tuesday temporarily blocked a lower court ruling from the day before suddenly breaking the rules and causing confusion between schools and businesses, New York’s indoor mask obligations remain. It is still valid.
Tuesday’s decision was made after Monday’s decision by Judge Thomas Raidmaker of the State Supreme Court of Nassau County, who stated that the rules requiring masks violated the State Constitution.
His ruling last month Governor Kathy Hokul as cases of coronavirus caused by Omicron variants surged and required masks or proof of complete vaccination in all indoor public spaces throughout the state. Suddenly invalidated some of the rules imposed by.
Hochul vowed to fight the decision immediately, and state prosecutor-general Letitia James sought to keep the decision pending while the state filed a formal appeal.
On Tuesday afternoon, Judge Robert J. Miller, a judge in the State Court of Appeals, was able to stand by the state to allow him to stay and temporarily reactivate the mask rules. Judge Miller scheduled another inquiry on this issue on Friday morning.
Despite the grace, Monday’s ruling injected a shock of uncertainty across the state as New York was still working on the end of the coronavirus case and the surge in hospitalization. It left parents and teachers scrambling all Tuesday to decipher whether children need to wear masks at school, and it revives the political flash point for mask wearing. I was allowed to.
Authorities said the ruling only affected state masking rules and did not replace local or federal rules on masking, but state officials scrambled on Monday night, raising legal issues. While doing so, he informed hundreds of school districts that the mask rules needed to be continued. It was ironed.
However, some schools, especially Long Island, where mask obligations are particularly divided, said they would adopt Judge Rademaker’s decision as a license to change the policy. They informed their parents through late-night and early-morning posts on their website and social media pages that masks are an option for Tuesday staff and students.
For example, City Hall officials said the decision had no direct impact on New York City schools, as New York City’s education department had implemented its own masking policy prior to the state’s order.
Hochul defended his mission at a virus briefing in Syracuse on Tuesday.
She asked her parents and students to continue to follow Mask’s policy. She said it was important to defeat the Omicron variant and keep the children in school.
“The last thing I want to see is another trend because people gave up on masks,” she said.
Omicron’s surge has receded in New York, but it’s not over. Currently, an average of about 20,000 people in the state test positive for coronavirus, a significant decrease from the peak of the 90,000 positive surge on January 7. The positive rate is also halved from 22 or more. Percent to 10 percent.
However, the daily number of cases in New York remains much higher than at the start of the surge in early December, and hospitals are still tense to treat about 10,000 Covid patients across the state. Hospitalizations are starting to decline, but remain higher than at any time since May 2020. Every day, more than 130 people die from the virus throughout the state.
- Case
- Dead (number)
500%
Last winter peak
About this data
Source: State and local health agencies (cases, deaths); US Department of Health and Human Services (hospitalization).
Judge Rademaker, who ran the Conservative line, was elected to the Supreme Court of Nassau County in 2019. The Supreme Court of New York is the highest court in the state, but it is not a last resort court. The Court of Appeals is the Supreme Court.
Following his ruling, several school districts on Long Island began telling their parents that masks were an option as of Tuesday morning.
