Beyond the classroom, de Blasio has hedged when asked whether mask rules should be more fully reinstated, including for vaccinated adults. On Sunday, he said there’s no plan to do so “at this point,” but stresses city officials are closely monitoring the situation and are prepared to pivot viral strategy as needed.

On Monday, the mayor said he does not plan to reinstate a citywide mask mandate even as COVID-19 cases increase, opting instead to focus on vaccinating more residents. De Blasio, like others, says the latest case increases are by and large among non-immunized people. He also pointed to sustained declines in new hospitalization and death rates as a testament to the power of vaccination to curtail worse outcomes associated with the respiratory disease that first emerged in Wuhan in 2019.

“A mask doesn’t arrest the progress of the variant,” de Blasio said Monday. “Vaccination does. We’re going to go where the real impact is, bottom line.”