Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon wants New York to develop a metric that would allow for the removal of masks in public schools, according to a letter he wrote to the state health commissioner Monday.

“My team stands ready to serve as a resource to help districts implement the metric and guidance from New York State Health to allow for the removal of masks in schools,” he wrote. “First, however, we need you and your team to develop and release that guidance.”

“Now, more than ever, we must instill confidence in our community,” he continued in the letter. “During the last 23 months, our community has suffered extensively from more than just COVID-19. Our children deserve to know that their community leaders are working to restore a sense of normalcy and consistency at school.”

This has been a consistent point from the county executive over the last week or so.

“Everyone wants to get the metric to take these masks off kids,” McMahon said at a COVID-19 briefing last Wednesday. “But we got to set it…it’s easier to set a metric when you have 360 cases than when you have 75 cases. Because that’s when these other variables that aren’t science-driven get involved.”

This comes as neighboring states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, have moved to suspend their statewide requirement for schools in the coming weeks. For her part, Gov. Kathy Hochul, who set New York’s mask requirement for schools on her first day in office in August, indicated no change was soon coming and again indicated ending it will be linked to the number of children, especially those ages 5 to 11, who get vaccinated.

“We are going to be assessing our situation here in New York," Hochul said Monday.

Onondaga County on Monday reported 119 new COVID-19 cases and 153 people currently in the hospital. Three new deaths were recorded over the weekend, as well as one death recorded in a nursing home.