FILE — Students wearing masks leave the New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math (NEST+m) school in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, Dec. 21, 2021, in New York. The New York State Education Department is telling schools to continue to require masks despite a judge’s ruling overturning the state's mask mandate.  But some school districts already are rushing to drop the requirement.  The Education Department said in a statement Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022 that the state was appealing the ruling, which could temporarily halt it, and that schools should follow the mask rule in the meantime. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman, File)

More than half of New York residents polled recently say they’d prefer to see more data before deciding whether a state mandate requiring face masks in schools should be lifted.

According to the results of a Siena College poll released Tuesday, 58% said they would like to see the early March data; 30% said the mandate already should have ended while 10% want to see the mandate end after this week’s school break.

“Waiting to see data from early March before deciding to lift the school mask mandate — as opposed to lifting that mandate as schools reconvene next week or wishing it had been lifted previously — is how the majority of New Yorkers would like to proceed,” said Siena College pollster Steven Greenberg. “The majority of virtually every demographic group agrees, though not Republicans and conservatives, who wish the mandate had ended already.”

Regarding New York’s indoor public face mask mandate, 45% polled say the mandate should still be in place compared to 31% who believe the indoor mandate should have ended earlier than it did. Meanwhile, 20% say the mandate ended at the right time.