The mask mandate for students, teachers and other personnel in New Jersey schools will continue. The mandate, part of last summer’s Executive Order No. 251, was due to expire Jan. 11.
“I want to be clear — by the way, with no joy … that the mask mandates in schools and day care centers will continue at least for the foreseeable future,” Gov. Phil Murphy said early on during his Jan. 10 briefing.
During the subsequent Q&A session with the media, Murphy said, “We cannot responsibly in the teeth of this tsunami change gears on this. I think if you had asked me six weeks ago, did I have some hope that on Jan. 11 at midnight we might have been able to shift to a different reality — yeah, I did have that hope. … But we will not and cannot get there, and I say unequivocally, we will not get there in the near term.”
NJ Advance Media’s Matt Arco has more.