Gov. Phil Murphy will announce Monday that he plans to end the long-standing COVID-19 school mask mandate that requires students, staff and visitors to school facilities to wear face coverings, an administration official confirmed to NJ Advance Media.
The news was first reported by the New York Times.
Murphy is expected to end the requirement— put in place before many schools reopened in September 2020 — starting March 7, the administration official told NJ Advance Media. It wasn’t clear if individual school districts would be permitted to implement their own rules about face coverings.
Murphy had hinted at decision in recent weeks. The governor has his weekly coronavirus briefing scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday.
While masks are not mandated by the state in private businesses, coverings are still needed in places like hospitals and state offices.
After a surge fueled by the omicron variant in December and early January sent cases and hospitalizations soaring, new positive tests and patient counts have plummeted in the ensuing month.
Student and staff infection numbers also surged in the weeks before and after the Christmas break. With about two-thirds of New Jersey’s schools voluntary reporting data to state officials, 102,237 students and 28,583 school staff have been infected this school year through the week ending Jan. 30.
The state also tracks COVID-19 in-school outbreaks, which is narrowly defined as three or more cases linked through contact tracing. New Jersey has reported 465 total in-school outbreaks involving 3,138 students and staff.
The mask requirement has ignited heated disputes in may districts and triggered a lawsuit by an anti-mask group. A U.S. District judge ruled the mandate does not violate the U.S. Constitution.
Teachers are required to be vaccinated or submit to regular testing. Students are not required to be inoculated.
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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com
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