Governor Murphy To Drop School Mask Mandate Next Month

The mask mandate for New Jersey schools will be dropped on March 7.  The Governor is expected to outline the details of the dropping of the mandate during a 1 o’clock media conference.

The move is being announced even though the in-school transmission of COVID has increased over the last several weeks.  State officials say overall cases of COVID among students and school personnel has decreased.

Murphy announced on Twitter that “Balancing public health with getting back to some semblance of normalcy is not easy.  But we can responsibly take this step due to declining COVID numbers and growth in vaccinations.”

The Governor went on to say, “Over the past two weeks, as some schools moved back to all in-person instruction, we have also seen an increase in the rates of in-school transmission,” Murphy said at last Wednesday’s coronavirus news briefing. “We continue to take a multi-layered approach to safety to minimize the spread while everyone is in their school building.”

Breaking down the numbers issued by the state we see the following numbers:

Graphic Credit: Office of the NJ Governor

24.97 student cases and 58.55 employee cases per 1,000 people from December 27 to January 2. Those statistics dropped from January 17 through 23 to 10.32 student cases and 12.5 staff cases per 1,000 people.  The figures include infections transmitted in and out of school.

School districts and daycare centers which choose to continue the mask mandate beyond March 7 may do so according to the state.