Changes To COVID-19 Safety Guidelines For Children

Last week we learned that the New York State Health Department released safety guidelines for summer camps and daycare providers throughout the state. State officials received a great deal of resistance, and they caved to the pressure. Safety guidelines were revised to change the mandate for small children in daycare settings and summer camps.

State healthcare officials with the Office of Children and Family Services and the State Health Department revised the COVID-19 safety guidelines late on Monday night to change the guidelines for small children.

Accordin to Malone Camp leaders and daycare providers collaborated to resist the state's new guidelines that would require young children to wear masks all day with few exceptions. Originally the guidance required children two years old and older to wear face coverings all day except when eating, drinking, or sleeping.

The two groups were able to have their voices heard and the State announced that they changed the mandate. The two-state agencies released a statement that says, “Both agencies understand how difficult it is to require the youngest children to wear masks and have jointly agreed to revise guidance allowing child care providers to continue the practices and protocols that have been in place since the start of the pandemic by encouraging, not requiring, children aged 2 to 5 wear facemasks, effective immediately.”

Guidelines were updated for New Yorkers last week to follow the CDC guidelines that allow vaccinated individuals to appear in public without masks. Young children are not eligible to be vaccinated, and the mandate would have required them to wear masks since they didn’t meet the vaccination criteria.

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Everyone would probably agree that it is virtually impossible to keep a mask on a two-year-old. As the science changes so will the guidelines, so I’m sure we will see more updates and changes.

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