Masks will no longer be required on public transport, in airports or ride-share vehicles.
Janno Lieber, chief executive of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, told a news conference that it had become "more and more difficult to justify and to enforce a mask requirement as so much of the city and so many other places were opening up".
Renegades used to receive dirty looks or be given wide berths. But this week - as commuters facing renewed return-to-office calls crammed into subway cars - perhaps half of riders were masked, with people making little differentiation between masked and unmasked. In fact, for some, the biggest surprise of Wednesday's announcement may have been that the mandate was still in place, when so many others have long since lapsed.
Whether people will return to masking voluntarily as winter sets in remains to be seen. But for now, the decision simply formalises a regime that has already been largely in place.
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