NEW YORK — New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy will lift the state mask mandate for schools on March 7, but local districts will still have the authority to keep their own in place.
Murphy is expected to formally announce the news Monday afternoon, the governor’s communications director confirmed to the Daily News Monday.
New Jersey has maintained some of the strictest COVID-19 protocols in the country and was one of just 11 states in the country to mandate masks for students.
Only about in four New Jersey children are fully vaccinated and one in three have received at least one shot as of Feb. 1, according to NJ.com.
Murphy last renewed his mask mandate on Jan. 11, hours before his executive order expired. Last school year, he announced plans to leave the decision up to individual districts, but instead issued a statewide order amid the omicron surge in the fall.
COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in New Jersey have continued to plummet, even as mask mandates are gradually lifted. The state currently requires masks in “high-risk areas” like schools, hospitals, public transit, child care centers, correctional facilities and homeless shelters.
As of mid-January, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was still recommending universal indoor masking for all students, staff, teachers and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.
Murphy was narrowly re-elected to the governor’s mansion in November by just 51% of the vote in a race that pundits viewed as a referendum on mask mandates and other COVID-19 protocols. His Republican opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, was stridently against a mandate.
Delaware Gov. John Carney also announced Monday that he will lift the state’s indoor mask mandate at the end of the week and allow the school mask mandate to expire at the end of March.
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