As demand for COVID-19 vaccines collapses in many areas of the U.S., states are scrambling to use stockpiles of doses before they expire and have to be added to the millions that have already gone to waste. From some of the least vaccinated states, like Indiana and North Dakota, to some of the ...

Masks at local schools will become optional when classes start on Wednesday, following the lifting of the state mask mandate. The state is now leaving the decision of whether to keep or drop the mask mandate up to county and city governments, but the state has also given individual school ...

ALBANY (AP) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Sunday that the statewide masking requirement in schools will be lifted by March 2. In a briefing held in Albany, the Democrat cited declining COVID-19 cases and guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She said ...

ALBANY — As COVID-19 transmission rates plunge, nearly three out of five New Yorker voters want the state to proceed cautiously before the controversial school mask mandate is lifted, the Siena College Poll reported Tuesday. The survey found that 30% of voters would end the mandate ...

SARANAC LAKE — Twelve cars drove from the Lake Colby boat launch to a strip mall parking lot on Lake Flower Avenue on Saturday, honking and waving flags to protest vaccine and mask mandates. The event, called the North Country Freedom Ride, was a locally-organized protest in the style of ...

ALBANY — New York will not enforce its mandate requiring health care workers to get COVID-19 boosters in light of concerns about staffing shortages, state health officials said Friday. Gov. Kathy Hochul pointed to a troubling rise in breakthrough infections when she announced the mandate ...