The politics around COVID restrictions appear to be changing. '[I]t's time to give people their lives back,' tweeted Rep. Sean Maloney.
The announcements from Governors J. B. Pritzker in Illinois, Kathy Hochul in New York and Daniel McKee in Rhode Island came just after California, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon governors said they would be Taken together, the policy changes mark a turning point for Democratic governors who have kept COVID restrictions in place in schools and reinstated some requirements more broadly amid the Omicron surge.
The governors are"very clear that public health and the science is what dictates the policies...The case counts are going down; warmer weather is coming up," said Democratic Governors Association communications director David Turner."Everybody realizes they need to provide some light at the end of the tunnel, for some sense of normalcy.
Republicans have capitalized on instances where Democrats have taken off their masks in public. Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams apologized Tuesday after appearing maskless in a photo with masked school children.