New Yorkers are being told to consider masking up this Labor Day weekend amid concerns over rising Covid cases and a new variant.
A spokesman for the city’s health department told DailyMail.com that precautions like wearing coverings in crowded indoor areas may be a ‘good idea’.
Earlier this week the city’s health commissioner Dr Ashwin Vasan said that measures against Covid were becoming ‘increasingly important’.
‘Staying up to date with Covid vaccines, along with other proven prevention tools — like masking, testing and staying home when sick — continue to be our best defence against Covid and other respiratory viruses,’ he said.
New York City, like other major cities such as Los Angeles, is recording an uptick in cases, data suggests. Its hospitalizations are also rising — although they are coming up from record lows and are still below levels even in March 2023. The city is also not bringing back face masks, but reminding residents of its current guidance.
No major cities have re-imposed mask mandates, although some hospitals — such as several in upstate New York — and colleges — like Rutgers University in neighboring New Jersey — have brought back the restrictions.
A spokesman for the city’s health department told DailyMail.com that wearing the coverings in crowded places like stations may be a ‘good idea’ (People wearing face masks on a subway in New York in May, 2021)
The above graph shows positive tests reported in New York City. This is likely a vast underestimate, however, because so few people are testing themselves for the virus
The above shows Covid hospitalizations in New York City. These are also rising, but remain far below levels recorded even earlier this year
Asked whether everyone should wear a face mask this weekend, a spokesman for the city’s health department told DailyMail.com: ‘As cases rise, precautions like face masks may be a good idea.’
Advice from the city’s health department published online continues to read: ‘To reduce your risk of getting Covid, consider still wearing a mask in crowded indoor public settings, such as on public transit, at large events and when shopping in crowded stores.’
There has been some concern over Covid in recent weeks as surveillance indicates that cases are rising — driven by more transmissible Covid variant EG.5.
Concerns over a fresh wave of infections have also been sounded after a new variant BA.2.86 — or ‘Pirola’ — was spotted in the US, although there is currently no sign that it is more likely to cause serious disease or death.
The strain has been detected in New York and four other states — Michigan, Ohio, Texas and Virginia — although scientists fear it may already be more widespread.
Face mask mandates in crowded indoor areas were relaxed in most areas late last year, with final restrictions — such as masks in hospitals — eased by this year.
City health chiefs have not ruled out a return to mandatory masking, but stress that it is unlikely that these rules will return.
In Los Angeles, where Covid cases have doubled over the past month, health chiefs say they are not planning any changes to guidance.
Asked whether a face mask mandate would ever return in the city, Barbara Ferrer, the director of its Department of Health, said: ‘Ever is not a word I’m comfortable with.’
‘There’s not that level of certainty with this pandemic. I’m never going to say there’s not going to be a time when we all need to put our masks back on.
‘[But] I am going to say we certainly don’t all need to put our masks back on now.
‘We are at a place where people make their own assessment.’
National surveillance now suggests Covid cases are trending upward, with the test positivity — proportion of swabs picking up the virus — hitting 13.5 percent on August 19, the latest day that data is available.
Hospitalizations are also up, with 15,067 registered in the week ending August 19 — the latest available — up 19 percent from 12,679 in the previous seven-day spell. This level is, however, still barely a third of the peak of 44,000 this year. It is also well below below the record 150,000 at the start of January 2022.
Fatalities have also risen slightly, with 616 reported in the week ending August 5, the latest date available, compared to 512 in the previous seven-day spell.
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