New York Gov. Kathy Hochul struck a positive tone Wednesday as she announced that the state’s mask-or-vax mandate for most indoor places would expire on Thursday, two months to the day since she announced a requirement for face coverings as the omicron variant of COVID-19 began its winter surge.

“Look where we are. Overall cases are down. Positivity rates down. Hospitalizations are down. Cases per 100,000 are down and new admissions are down,” the governor said.

Like the original strain of COVID-19, the omicron variant was first identified in a faraway country, but did not take long to start impacting the Empire State.

“We were studying what was happening around the globe and saying ‘this is coming our way. We know this is coming to New York and we need to be prepared for that,’” Hochul recalled Wednesday.

New York reported its first detected case of the omicron variant in early December. In a state traumatized by being the nation's epicenter of the virus at its outset, events were once again being postponed, schools were going remote and COVID-19 cases were rising. All the while, Hochul and other public officials insisted “this is not March 2020.”

It was on Dec. 10 when Hochul announced the mask-or-vax policy for businesses. She said it was the alternative to the broad shutdowns New York experienced in the spring of 2020.

“We said we do not want to shut down our economy. As I said from the beginning, we’re keeping New York open,” she said.

A week later, the state recorded its highest number of new COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began, reaching a number not seen since January 2021. Over the next few weeks, the state would break that record 12 more times before they started receding, reaching a peak of 90,132 new cases on Jan. 7.

Hochul said there has been a 93% drop in cases since that peak. The statewide seven-day average positivity rate, which hit a 23% infection rate at its highest, has dropped to 3.67%. In early January, the state was recording 381 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, which was the second-highest in the nation, Hochul said. Now it is recording 32 cases per 100,000 people, which is the fourth-lowest in the nation.

At one point, there were 12,000 people in the hospital, which is still lower than they were during the spring apex in April 2020, but still high. Hochul said there has been a 63% drop in hospitalizations since.

“Why is all this happening?" Hochul said Wednesday referring to dropping the mandate. "Because New Yorkers and businesses stepped up and did the right thing."

The next step to returning New York to normalcy is evaluating the need for masks in schools, which the governor said will be taking place over the next few weeks.