- The Washington Times - Monday, February 7, 2022

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday he will no longer require students and school staff to wear masks as of March 7, making him the latest blue-state governor to relent after two years of divisive COVID-19 mandates.

Local school officials will be able to keep mask rules in place for students, teachers and staff if they want to, the Democratic governor said, but he felt compelled to drop the statewide requirement because the omicron wave is easing.

“We have to learn how to live with COVID as we move from a pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus,” Mr. Murphy said in a news conference. “We are optimistic that given the decreased severity of this variant and the continued increase in vaccinations we are finally nearing this inflection point.”

The governor said he will “not tolerate” any bullying of people who continue to use masks after the mandate is lifted.

The New Jersey Educators Association, a major teachers union, greeted the announcement with cautious optimism, saying virus levels are trending in the right direction but it will be important for the state to remain nimble and help schools navigate the way forward.

“We urge Gov. Murphy to continue to analyze the data and do whatever is necessary to best protect the health and well-being of students and staff. That includes the possibility of maintaining or reimposing the mask mandate for schools after March 7 if the data indicate that is the correct course,” NJEA President Sean M. Spiller and other union officials said in a statement. “It is appropriate for Gov. Murphy to allow local districts to continue to require masking in communities where that is prudent based on local conditions.”

As case rates drop, other governors across the country also are under pressure to relent on divisive COVID-19 mandates and try to live with the virus.

The percentage of those testing positive dropped to 6.7% from over 11% one week ago, and hospitalizations have dropped by a third over the past week.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, removed a school mask mandate last month and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul recently hinted she would ease up on a mask mandate that expires Feb. 10 and has faced headwinds in court.

“We’ll be making some announcements in the short term as we see the numbers progressing,” Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, said at a press conference last week.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people wear high-grade, well-fitting masks in public indoor spaces within geographic areas with substantial or high transmission of the virus. It also recommends universal mask-wearing by all students aged 2 or older, staff, teachers, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

Yet objections to mask mandates, particularly in schools, have sparked vociferous fights. Some parents say face coverings are impeding their kids’ social development.

Republican governors in states like Florida and Texas banned school mask mandates months ago, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, signed an order allowing parents to choose whether they mask their school children shortly after he was inaugurated last month.

A court temporarily blocked Mr. Youngkin’s order on Friday, siding with seven districts that filed a lawsuit saying the order was unlawful.

Former Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said he expects Connecticut and other states to ease up on mask mandates as those rules expire in the coming weeks, rather than renewing them.

“That doesn’t mean that this isn’t going to continue to spread. But … we can start to lean forward and take a little bit more risk and try to at least make sure that students in schools have some semblance of normalcy for this spring term,” Dr. Gottlieb told CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “A lot of kids haven’t really known a normal school day for two years now, so we want to- we need to try to lean forward aggressively to try to restore that and reclaim it when we can.”

Mr. Murphy is making a change two years after New Jersey became the epicenter of the emerging pandemic alongside New York City in spring 2020.

New Jersey lost 360 people per 100,000 of its population to the virus, giving it one of the worst deaths rates in the country.

For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.

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