Screenshot of NY Daily News with a headline that reads "As Covid Spikes in NYC, Mask Mandates Return to City Hospitals." The article includes an image of a sign in a window with a headline that reads "Wear your mask even if you're vaxxed" with a person in the background wearing a mask.
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As COVID Spikes in City Hospitals, Mask Mandates Return (January 3, 2024)

Screenshot of NY Daily News with a headline that reads "As Covid Spikes in NYC, Mask Mandates Return to City Hospitals." The article includes an image of a sign in a window with a headline that reads "Wear your mask even if you're vaxxed" with a person in the background wearing a mask.

A 1/3/24 article in the New York Daily News has the headline “As Covid Spikes in NYC, Mask Mandates Return to City Hospitals”, which notes:

With COVID, flu, and RSV on the rise the NYC public hospital system brought back masking requirements just after Christmas 2023. The spike in this “tripledemic” predicted by the CDC in September 2023 continues to put disabled and especially immuno-compromised people at increased risk.

This December 2023 data from the CDC shows New York City reached the “very high” level of respiratory illness, the highest level on the CDC’s scale.

Possibility contributing to the spike is the fact that while over 80% of New Yorkers have received their first COVID vaccine, just 18% of the total population has received the bivalent booster.

— Faye Ginsburg