TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey Governo Phil Murphy on Monday is once again encouraging local school districts to mask up their young students. Murphy says districts located in high transmission areas need to voluntarily enforce a universal mask mandate in public schools but stopped short of reintroducing his own state mandate.
Murphy said his administration is now looking into what measures it can take as COVID-19 cases rose to 273 cases per day on a statewide 7-day trend.
“We are looking at what options we need to take,” Murphy said. “School districts, particularly if they’re in those counties have every right to say, “Listen, we need the kids and educators to put masks back on while they’re indoors.”
The governor said there is no decision on whether or not he will enforce another statewide universal mask mandate.
Under the law, individual school districts are allowed to require face masks for students and faculty if rates of transmission and cases increase again. Murphy said the current minor wave of COVID-19 is expected to peak in about two weeks or so.