Health

New York City To End Mask Mandate For Children Under Age 5

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Dylan Housman Deputy News Editor
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New York City will finally end its school mask mandate for children under age 5 on April 4, Democratic Mayor Eric Adams announced Tuesday.

The plan to drop the mandate will depend on cases remaining low in the city, according to The New York Times. Adams said he wanted to wait to drop the mandate for younger students until officials could monitor the effect of dropping the mask mandate for grades K-12 earlier this month.

The mandate applied to city’s 3-K and 4-K classes, as well as other preschools contracted with the city’s education department, according to the NYT.

Adams also said he was concerned about the fact that kids under age 5 could not get vaccinated. He remained open to backtracking on his relaxing of restrictions if a new wave causes an increase in hospitalizations or deaths in the city. (RELATED: The Biden Administration Is Ignoring The Science On Airplane Masking)

The new mayor has made a “return to normalcy” one of his priorities since entering office at the beginning of the year. He’s faced pressure from parents to drop mask mandates for kids, according to the NYT, and has already rid New York of many COVID-19 restrictions implemented by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio, such as a vaccine mandate for entering certain kinds of indoor businesses.