MTA: Nay to feds’ face mask policy

Federal guidance that frontline MTA workers shouldn’t wear face masks to contain the spread of coronavirus isn’t working for the city’s top transit boss — who has tested positive for the disease himself.

“We’re no longer taking the advice of the [federal] CDC and the [UN’s] World Health Organization,” Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Patrick Foye (inset) said Tuesday. “We have decided not to take that advice going back to last week. We’re distributing north of 75,000 masks to our frontline workers. That number will grow.”

Foye’s fiery announcement comes as at least eight MTA employees have died from coronavirus, with an additional 582 sick with the disease and another 3,334 directed to quarantine.

Workers and union leaders for weeks called for the distribution of protective face masks to contain the spread of the outbreak among MTA workers. But until Friday, when the MTA announced it had secured tens of thousands of new masks for employees, transit honchos followed the guidance of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Foye, who tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, isn’t the only high-ranking New York official to question the wisdom of the CDC.

Gov. Cuomo said Saturday he was taking a hard look at federal guidelines around protective equipment for health care workers. “Many health care professionals are concerned that those [CDC] guidelines do not adequately protect the nurses and the doctors,” said Cuomo. “If we believe the CDC guidelines don’t protect health care professionals, we will put our own guidelines in place.”

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said the CDC is considering new guidelines on face masks.