NEW YORK — State officials will allow masking requirements in health care facilities to lapse on Feb. 12, signaling an end to one of New York’s last remaining Covid-era requirements.
The requirement had applied to staff, patients and visitors in hospitals and health care settings, regardless of vaccination status.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention loosened its masking requirements for health care settings in September, but New York continued to renew its statewide mandate.
Acting Health Commissioner Dr. James V. McDonald said the department’s decision to not request a renewal of the emergency regulation reflects a “period of transition” in the pandemic, thanks to decreasing levels of Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations.
“It allows us to shift from blanket mandates to an approach in which we provide people with the information and tools they need to protect themselves,” McDonald said Thursday during a state Public Health and Health Planning Council meeting. “We’ve given health care facilities and the general public the information they need to protect themselves.”
However, individual hospitals and facilities could enact their own masking rules.
McDonald said the Health Department will advise facilities to follow CDC guidance and come up with their own plans for when they will require personnel to wear face coverings based on community case levels, not on vaccination status.
Brian Conway, a spokesperson for the Greater New York Hospital Association, said its member hospitals and health systems do not oppose the mandate expiring.
“They’re well prepared to use their vast internal expertise and experience to make masking decisions that are in the best interest of their patients and staff,” he said in a statement.
Scott LaRue, the CEO of ArchCare and a member of the Public Health and Health Planning Council, said the state will distribute a regulatory guidance memo Friday.
ArchCare is a long-term care provider.
A Health Department spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
