On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested to reporters that he has plans to roll back the city's vaccine and mask mandates as key metrics continue to drop across the state.
Although he didn't give an exact timeline for when these policies would end. He told reporters at an unrelated press conference that rescinding the Key to NYC vaccination requirement is a top priority, according to the New York Daily News.
"I can't wait to get it done," Adams said.
Adams continued on to state that in the next several weeks, he will look to remove mask mandates.
"I look forward in the next few weeks to going through a real transformation that I don't have to wonder what you look like. I will know what you look like again," he said, pointing to the masked reporters in the room.
According to a City Hall official, Adams has no plans to revisit the private employer vaccine mandate, a point that flattens hopes in the sporting world that Brooklyn Nets player Kyrie Irving would be able to play home games again.
If New York were to drop their mandates, they would follow in the footsteps of other major cities taking the same actions, including Boston and Philadelphia.
On Tuesday, New York City saw its average COVID-19 test positivity rate plummet to 1.28 percent, with hospitalizations trending downwards as well.
Despite the promising data, public health experts still caution viewing the dropping numbers as reasoning to remove the precautions, given the possibility for a new COVID-19 variant.
According to the New York Daily News, "Dr. Jay Varma, an infectious disease expert at Weill Cornell Medicine who served as former Mayor Bill de Blasio's top pandemic adviser, said he would 'absolutely' advise Adams against ending the vaccine screening mandate for dining and other indoor activities."
Varma said that immunity against the virus fluctuates constantly, with the fact that vaccine protections wane over time, and therefore it would be critical to keep these protections in place.
"That is why we are in a constant battle with this pandemic. I'm very concerned when people say we have reached a very high level of vaccination and that we can then take away vaccine mandates because what happens in the very likely scenario that we face a new variant in the future?" Varma told the Daily News.
"I really do worry about a place like New York, which has already experienced so much devastation. Now is not the time to celebrate. Now is the time to prepare."
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