A person making a face mask | AP Photo Cuomo orders employers to provide essential workers with masks

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that he will order employers who are still open and interacting with the public to provide workers with some sort of face covering.

A forthcoming executive order will direct “employers to provide essential workers with a cloth or surgical facemask to their employees when they are interacting with the public. And they should provide those masks cost-free,” he said.


New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy recently issued a similar order.

“I think Governor Murphy was right and I want to do that here in the state of New York,” Cuomo said.

Notably, however, New Jersey’s order also required customers in places like supermarkets to wear masks. Cuomo — who has yet to be seen wearing a mask — did not give any indication that he will issue a similar mandate.

Easter Sunday is often when Cuomo has his most interaction with the public — since his father died on Jan. 1, 2015, he’s replaced the traditional New Year’s open house at the Executive Mansion with an egg hunt accompanied by a public receiving line.

That obviously didn’t happen this year. Instead, Cuomo began his day by driving to Pathways Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Niskayuna, a suburb of Schenectady.

That facility had loaned 35 ventilators to downstate hospitals, and with numbers seemingly plateauing in New York City, the state was able to return them on Sunday. Cuomo used the opportunity to thank the nursing home for its “incredibly beautiful generous gesture.”

“You made a difference in my heart, you really did,” he told nurses gathered on the other side of a closed window.

Speaking in the Capitol a couple of hours later, Cuomo reiterated that he has not yet made any decisions about whether schools will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Saturday that his city's schools would remain shut, but Cuomo quickly overrode that decision.

“If you’re saying schools are closed through June, you’re effectively saying businesses are closed through June,” Cuomo said.

He argued that the decision should be made regionally, given the number of people who divide their residence and workplace between New York City and elsewhere.

“We’ll have a coordinated plan, we’ll have a regional plan. Hopefully we can get on the same page with New Jersey and Connecticut. We’re going to try, that is the optimum situation,” he said. “Not every local government in New York is going to agree with every aspect of the plan … but you do the best you can to come up with mutuality. But ... you can’t make everybody happy with every decision.”