NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Tuesday he is lifting all state-mandated coronavirus restrictions after reporting that 70% of New York adults have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“It is an important milestone, and we’re going to keep pushing to do more,” Cuomo told a news conference, adding that the state would continue to encourage more New Yorkers to get vaccinated.
Restrictions across commercial and social settings will be lifted immediately, but Cuomo said some limitations that flowed from decisions by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would remain in place, with mitigation measures still required in public transit and healthcare settings.
Cuomo, whose state in the early stages of the pandemic last year was at the center of the COVID-19 public health crisis in the United States, also said individuals and businesses could still choose to adopt some precautions.
(Reporting by Maria Caspani and Jonathan Allen in New York, Editing by Will Dunham and Chizu Nomiyama)
