By Rami Ayyub
The governors of New Jersey and Delaware on Monday said their states would lift school mask mandates in the coming weeks, aiming for a return to “normalcy” as the surge in coronavirus infections fueled by the Omicron variant abates in their states.
The change signals a desire by at least some Democratic state governors, including New Jersey’s Phil Murphy and Delaware’s John Carney, to take their states off emergency footing and shift toward policies that treat the virus as part of normal life.
By no longer requiring students, teachers and administrators to wear masks in schools, the governors are also seeking to blunt one of the most divisive issues of the pandemic. Republican leaders in some states, including Florida and Texas, have banned mask mandates in schools, while Democrats have generally encouraged the policy to help stall new infection.
In New Jersey, where the number of new cases have decreased over the past two weeks, Governor Murphy announced the state would lift its school mask mandate on March 7.
“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,” Murphy wrote on Twitter.
Murphy said later in a press conference that individual school districts and private childcare providers would still be allowed to maintain and enforce mask mandates.
“Any student, educator, or staff member or visitor who chooses to continue masking up while indoors may freely do so… We will not tolerate anyone being put down by exercising their choice to mask up.”
Delaware Governor Carney said his state would rescind its mask mandate for indoor public settings on Friday and lift its school mask mandate on March 31.
“We’re in a much better place than we were several weeks ago,” Carney wrote on Twitter, but he added: “The virus still poses a risk of serious illness, particularly among those who are not up to date on their vaccinations.”
President Joe Biden met with Murphy and other U.S. governors last week at the White House, where the state leaders expressed a desire to return to a sense of normalcy nearly two years after the pandemic forced many schools to switch to online learning and later to institute mask policies.
Pennsylvania moved last week to lift its school mask mandate, while New York and Connecticut said they are re-evaluating indoor masking policies. All three states have Democratic governors.
As masking policies shift, many U.S. school districts have returned to in-person learning in recent weeks, according to Burbio.com, a site that collects school calendar data. An average of 180 schools were not offering in-person instruction last week nationwide, down from some 6,000 on Jan. 14.
Reuters
