Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul said Wednesday she will force a universal mask mandate for all New York schools when she becomes governor one week from now.
“I accept we need a mask mandate for kids to return to school,” Hochul told reporters following a visit through the Louis Armstrong School/PS 143 in Corona, Queens. “What’s more, that should be universal. It will be statewide.”
She added, “In merely days I will actually want to say we will have mask mandates. I simply don’t have that authority right now and I’m not going to exceed.”
Hochul said the state Health Department has the authority to force a mask mandate, without looking for administrative endorsement.
She additionally jested that she will be the “rational” governor when she replaces shamed Andrew Cuomo as New York’s CEO one week from now.
Hochul said Wednesday she’s developing a solid compatibility with Mayor Bill de Blasio, whom she met with on Tuesday — and both shared a joke to Cuomo’s detriment.
“It was only a decent healthy normal — accentuate the word rational — discussion which I genuinely appreciated,” de Blasio said during his every day press preparation remote from City Hall.
“I’m super regarded that the civic chairman called me ‘rational.’ That’s acceptable,” Hochul later said, to a thunder of giggling from reporters.
De Blasio said last month that the city public school framework will keep on requiring mask wearing, after the federal Centers for Disease Control loosened up its mask direction as expanded vaccinations to diminish the spread of COVID-19.
City teachers are likewise needed to get the COVID vaccine or undergo standard testing.
In the mean time, Hochul said she needs to fix the state’s lethargic rollout of delivering cash to landowners and occupants under the $2.6 billion emergency rent relief program, a wreck as of late featured by news.
“I just had a meeting with Commissioner [Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance] Commissioner Michael] Hein just as different chiefs from the administration who have been chipping away at this. I posed them extreme inquiries. I got a few answers,” Hochul said.
Hein is relied upon to get barbecued at a state Senate hearing on the rent relief program Thursday.
New York State’s program to protect renters hit hard by the Covid pandemic has helped only 7,000 families and awarded under $100 million up until this point — simply a small amount of what’s accessible, as indicated by a state audit.
The report from state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli uncovered that was only a simple part of the 168,000 families that have applied for assistance up until this point and that authorities have handed out under 4% of the $2.6 billion the state got from the feds.
Hochul said a portion of the difficulties with the state rent relief program have to do with “one of a kind parts of New York State law in contrast with different states.”
Critics complained of a cumbersome application measure.
“That was information that was critical to hear,” she said.
Hochul, 62, takes over as governor next Tuesday — supplanting Cuomo, who surrendered under danger of impeachment in the midst of an inappropriate behavior scandal.
A devastating investigative report delivered by state Attorney General Letitia James discovered Cuomo physically pestered 11 ladies, including current and previous staff members.
Hochul is getting out and about to will better know the city’s political leaders. She met with de Blasio and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams — her 2018 Democratic essential enemy — on Tuesday.
Hochul was guarded about whether she would supplant or keep Cuomo selected organization heads. She said she’s requiring a 45-day time frame to set up her leadership group.
“I’m not going to uncover any of my staffing decisions… I have associations with every one of the commissioners. I’m no more bizarre to any of them,” Hochul said.
“I additionally perceive there is a ton of top ability out there who are connecting with us. Inquiring as to whether they can be essential for another administration to get a totally different time for the state of New York. So I’ll be exceptionally occupied over the course of the a long time.”
She has said she will trade any state authorities fingered for unscrupulous conduct in AG James’ investigative report of Cuomo.
In different issue, Hochul said she will run a more open and transparent administration, including giving more information to the state Legislature, including the Assembly Judiciary Committee setting up an impeachment report on Cuomo.