Andrew Cuomo
© Timothy A. Clary/APAndrew Cuomo
Following days of protests, state officials say children over 2 will be 'encouraged' to wear masks

New York will "encourage" but not require children aged 2 and older to wear masks in child care settings such as summer camps following days of protests about the directive, including from county officials who pledged they would not enforce the mandate.

The state health department and the Office of Children and Family Services issued a joint statement late Monday saying they had agreed to "revise guidance allowing child care providers to continue the practices and protocols that have been in place since the start of the pandemic by encouraging, not requiring, children aged 2-5 to wear masks, effective immediately."

Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin is among a multitude of county leaders who have issued public statements in recent days indicating they would buck the directive and urging the state to reconsider.

"Children have not been required to wear a mask during the first year of the pandemic, a move rooted and common sense and recognition of research showing children are less susceptible to COVID-19," McLaughlin wrote in a letter to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo earlier Monday. He added that children experience less severe symptoms of the infectious disease and that requiring them to wear masks, sometimes for up to nine hours per day, would be a hardship.

"It was too far-reaching. These kids are in activities and now they're outside this time of year; it just didn't make any sense," said Oneida County Executive Anthony J. Picente Jr. "A lot of parents were up in arms. ... It was really more of an outrage on this one than anything else I've seen over the past 12 months."

Last week, a group of county leaders in the lower Hudson Valley — from Dutchess, Putnam, Sullivan, Rockland and Orange counties — wrote a similar letter to Cuomo urging him to abandon the new directive. They also said that children could not be "reasonably expected" to wear masks for hours in childcare and summer camp settings.

"This mandate was never based in science or simple common sense, especially at a time when (the governor) was signaling that mask-wearing will soon be a thing of the past for many adults," state Senate Republican Leader Robert Ortt said in a statement after the rule was rescinded. "It caused unnecessary frustration and confusion for providers and parents alike, and I'm glad to see it lifted."