New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Friday introduced a statewide masks mandate for all indoor public locations except the companies or venues have already got a vaccine requirement in place. 

The brand new mandate goes into impact Monday by means of Jan. 15, at which level the state will reassess its effectiveness based mostly on Covid-19 circumstances. 

It’s the newest transfer by the governor to fight the unfold of the brand new, extremely mutated omicron variant earlier than the vacation season commences. It comes in the future after New York state confirmed at least 20 cases of the new strain across the state.

“The short-term measures I’m taking at this time will assist accomplish this by means of the vacation season,” Hochul stated in a press launch. “We should not have reached the purpose the place we’re confronted with a winter surge, particularly with the vaccine at our disposal, and I share many New Yorkers’ frustration that we’re not previous this pandemic but.”