New York state entered 2022, the third calendar year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a new indoor mask mandate, a new variant, new case-count records and a new governor.

It’s a much different landscape than it was on March 1, 2020, when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the first case of coronavirus in the state. In the weeks that followed, New York quickly became the epicenter of the country’s largest health crisis in a century.

Two years later, New York continues its fight to save lives and minimize the damage the pandemic has wrought on the state’s hospitals, economy, workforce, education, mental health and general social structure. At the same time, the state yearns for a full return to normalcy, or at least, some form of normalcy while learning to live with a virus that likely won’t completely go away.

The havoc of omicron

A glimpse of that normalcy came in late spring and summer of 2021. After more than a year in effect, the state lifted its mask mandate for indoor public places in May and relaxed nearly all COVID-19-related restrictions, such as crowd sizes, in June.

While the summer months saw COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths bottom out — prompting the return of concerts, festivals and fairs — the pandemic that had traumatized the state for so long was overshadowed by the tumult of the state’s politics. Cuomo, who launched to national stardom over his handling of the pandemic’s outset, resigned as a disgraced politician. The reins would be handed to Kathy Hochul to continue the job of navigating the state through COVID-19. And it wouldn’t take long before she was tested.

Like they had in the fall of 2020, COVID-19 cases began an uptick in the fall of 2021, often brought about by colder weather forcing people to gather more indoors. But at the end of November, the World Health Organization classified a new variant of the virus as omicron, and described it as milder than previous strands, but more contagious. The first case of the new variant was identified in New York on Dec. 2 and case-counts in the state quickly began to skyrocket.  

In mid-December, the state recorded its highest number of new COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, reaching a number not seen since January 2021. Over the next few weeks, the state would break that record 12 more times before they started receding, reaching a peak of 90,132 new cases on Jan. 7. At one point, there were 12,000 people in the hospital, which was still lower than they were during the spring apex in April 2020, but higher than they had been in some time.  

The winter surge caused events to once again be postponed and many schools to temporarily return to remote learning. All the while, Gov. Hochul and other public officials insisted “this is not March 2020.”

Throughout the end of January and February, case numbers and hospitalizations plummeted, and are now at levels well below where they were at the beginning of New York’s third wave with the virus.

The vaccine rollout

It was during the first winter surge that long-awaited COVID-19 vaccines began becoming available for New Yorkers. Indeed, it was a registered nurse at a Queens health center who received the first COVID-19 shot in the country in December 2020.

The state gradually increased eligibility, based on health condition and age, throughout the spring. New York was able to boast high vaccination participation among the high-population states. In March 2021, 8.1% of the state’s total population had completed the vaccine series. In March 2022, that rate is now 75.3%, and among those 18 years old and older, it exceeds 85%.

The vaccine is required for health care workers across the state. A religious exemption expired in November, and since then, many workers who did not comply with the requirement have faced termination from their jobs. While this was one of the factors that has contributed to the industry’s staffing shortages over the past few months, state Department of Health data show 99% of staff have completed their vaccine series in skilled nursing facilities, adult care facilities and hospice care services.

In mid-February, state officials announced they were abandoning a requirement that health care workers receive booster shots in order to avoid more shortages.

At this time, the group most closely watched for their vaccination rate is children age 5-11, who just became eligible for the shots in early November. Currently, about 39% of New Yorkers in that age range have received at least one dose. State officials have said over the past few months that this vaccination rate among this age group would be a crucial metric in the decision to loosen COVID-19-related restrictions in schools, most notably, the school mask mandate.

Mask mayhem    

Hochul on Sunday announced the school mask mandate will also be dropped starting Wednesday. It’s the most significant sign yet that the pandemic is waning.

The classroom mask mandate has been one of the key hurdles remaining in New York’s journey to return to normal, functional life. It was a leading issue as a new race for governor heats up, and as tense school board meetings over the subject have caught the attention of many nationwide.

One of the symbols of the pandemic, New York’s initial indoor mask mandate was in place for over a year, and was relaxed in May 2021 after the state reached a one-dose vaccination rate of 70% among adults.

A mask-or-proof-of-vaccination rule was put in place by Hochul in December as the omicron surge began. The mandate faced serious legal scrutiny this time around, with a state judge ruling in January that the order was unconstitutional. That made for a confusing 24 hours as businesses and schools scrambled to determine what it meant for them. A stay was placed on the judge’s ruling the next day, leaving the mask order in place. With the case unresolved, the indoor mask order was relaxed a few weeks latng.

Looking to a third year

After two years of death and social disruption, New York leaders appear willing to look more beyond COVID-19 and spend more time and resources focusing on other issues, many of which the pandemic helped lay bare.

In her first budget proposal as governor, Hochul highlighted revamping the state’s health care industry that has been on the front lines since COVID-19 began. She has eyed $1.2 billion for bonuses for health care workers to help address the industry's recent workforce crunch, investing in efforts to get more people into the medical field and spending an additional $1.6 billion on health care facility upgrades.

Increases in spending on education — both secondary and college — are also priorities of the governor, as well as pandemic relief funds for businesses, which have undergone mass layoffs, staffing shortages and costly COVID-19 protocols to keep employees and customers safe. Improving mental health services and making child care more accessible and affordable have also been elevated. Budget negotiation season is currently underway in Albany, with the budget due April 1.

The pandemic came about quickly, but lingers as a threat with a lot of unknowns. But with vaccines now widely available and two years of trends to study, leaders contend they have the tools to fight as New York continues its gradual recovery.