NJ governor to require masks for K-12 students, school staff

Gov. Phil Murphy is set to announce that New Jersey students from kindergarten to 12th grade and staff members will be required to wear masks in schools when the new year begins in a few weeks

TRENTON, N.J. -- Staff members and students from kindergarten to 12th grade will be required to wear masks in New Jersey schools when the new year begins in a few weeks, Gov. Phil Murphy is set to announce Friday as COVID-19 cases rise in the state. The decision to require masks is an about-face from just a few weeks ago when Murphy said it would take a “deterioration” of COVID-19 data to require masks. Murphy's spokesperson Mahen Gunaratna confirmed that the governor planned to announce the requirement. The state's figures, like many across the country, have been trending up in recent weeks. The seven-day rolling average of new cases climbed over the past two weeks from 512 on July 20 to 1,104 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University. The surging figures are part of a nationwide struggle with the contagious delta variant, which has been leading — along with vaccination holdouts — to higher hospitalization rates across the country.