New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday that the state's indoor mask mandate for customers and businesses would expire, leaving state-based companies and residents to make their own choice about masks starting Thursday.

Last week Hochul said she would rely on the number of cases and conditions in the state to figure out which measures to take. However, the expiring of the indoor mask mandate will probably not apply to public schools because of the low vaccination rates of school-age kids.

“We say that is the right decision to lift this mandate for indoor businesses and let counties, cities and businesses make their own decisions on what they want to do with respect to masks,” Hochul said.

Just as the states were easing restrictions in late 2021, the Omicron surge of December and January prompted many states to reimpose mask mandates to ‌mitigate the surge.

Now, mask mandates across the country are dropping in line with the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom cited a 65% decrease in COVID-19 case rates for his decision to let indoor mask mandates expire by Feb. 15.

However, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky cautioned states against letting mask mandates expire.

“I know people are interested in taking masks off,” she said. “I, too, am interested. That would be one marker that we have much of the pandemic behind us.” However, she added, “we cannot look past the strain on our health systems and substantial number of deaths.”

Walensky added ‌the CDC continues to recommend “masking in areas of high and substantial transmission - that is essentially everywhere in the country in public indoor settings.”

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