Starting early next month all staff and children at schools and daycare facilities in New Jersey can ditch their facemasks — regardless of vaccination status — unless local officials decide they are still needed to control the spread of COVID-19.

Gov. Phil Murphy has hinted for weeks that he hoped to lift the state’s controversial school mask-mandate sometime this semester and announced the March 7 end date at his regular pandemic briefing Monday. He said the delay gives state health officials time to develop new guidelines to help school districts keep everyone safe while allowing for a greater sense of normalcy.

While immunization rates among children continue to lag, Murphy said the statewide decline in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations — something he said is projected to continue — allowed the state to take this step. Federal officials are soon expected to approve vaccine use for children under age five, which Murphy said could result in enhanced immune protection in classrooms and daycare.

Masks, no; public health emergency, yes

The policy change drew praise from New Jersey Republican leaders and was heralded as a victory by mask-mandate opponents. But Murphy said it does not mean the pandemic is over. He said he will extend the existing public health emergency, which he reinstated last month, for another 30 days to permit a more orderly transition. Officials will also re-examine the need for face coverings in state government buildings, he said, and could soon lift that remaining state-level mandate.

“This is not a declaration of victory as much as an acknowledgement that we can responsibly live with this thing,” Murphy explained at his pandemic briefing. “We are not going to manage COVID to zero,” he said, echoing comments he made last week after talking with other state leaders at a recent National Governors Association meeting. And Murphy insisted the decision wasn’t motivated by politics.

Do masks ‘muzzle’?

Mask mandates have proven unpopular in several states, as critics claimed they “muzzled” children and did little to help stop viral spread. Virginia lifted its school-mask requirement last month and governors in Connecticut and Delaware also announced plans to do so Monday. A requirement in New York State remains in court, according to reports.

Murphy defended the school face-covering mandate, put in place in August, as a key part of the public health strategy that allowed schools to remain open for in-person education this year, but said trends indicate it can be safely scrapped in the coming weeks.  “While we didn’t want to keep any mandates in force for a moment longer than necessary,” he said, “the last thing we wanted to do was to pull back too early, endanger our students and their families, and make it more likely that outbreaks would force schools to close … But we are confident that four weeks from now we will be at the point with regards to the statewide school mask mandate.”

COVID-19 diagnoses have fallen dramatically in New Jersey since the highly transmissible omicron variant sent case numbers soaring early this year. New diagnoses dropped 50% in the past week alone, Murphy said, and less than 7% of those screened test positive, compared with more than one-third in early January. Related hospitalizations are less than half of what they were a month ago.

Working with local health departments

While new outbreaks continue to crop up in New Jersey schools  — with 33 additional cases, or clusters, reported the last week of January — state data shows the rate of COVID-19 infections among students and staff has plummeted since early this year. State officials said schools or child-care centers can opt to continue universal masking after March 7 and should work with local health departments to decide on the best steps to prevent spread if infections do develop.

The New Jersey Educational Association, the state teachers union, called the policy change “appropriate” but encouraged Murphy to continue to analyze the data and keep the mandate in place if trends change. “We are encouraged by the data showing a rapid decline of COVID transmission in New Jersey. Because of that, we are cautiously optimistic that the current statewide school mask mandate can be safely relaxed in the near future, assuming current trends continue,” NJEA leaders wrote.

Murphy said individuals can also continue to wear a mask in school buildings if desired and districts must take “swift disciplinary action” against those who demean or bully anyone who opts for a face-covering. The shift gives families a chance to take control of these public-health decisions and “operationalize” strategies — like mask-wearing — to protect themselves as needed, he said.

“We know that every parent wants to do what’s best for their children,” said state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli “and we want to respect those decisions.”

Children are generally less susceptible to serious illness from COVID-19, but the number of youngsters infected and hospitalized increased recently with omicron. A dozen New Jerseyans under age 18 have died of COVID-19-related issues since the pandemic began here, state data shows.

Currently, just over one in four children is fully vaccinated in New Jersey, according to the state. In November, when federal officials approved shots for kids as young as five — and before the worst of the omicron wave — Murphy suggested the mask mandate could be lifted if more parents opted to have their children immunized.

Health officials stressed that while the policy shift gives local leaders and families more control, it also involves responsibility. Getting vaccinated, maintaining social distance and wearing a mask remain important tools to protect our health, they noted. Dr. Edward Lifshitz, head of the health department’s communicable disease team, said it is appropriate to loosen up some restrictions to allow people to live more normal lives, but the virus remains active.

“It will still be around, so people will still need to make reasonable decisions and take reasonable precautions,” Lifshitz said Monday.  “We’re certainly in a better place (when it comes to COVID-19’s impact on New Jersey) and we’re heading in the right direction and that’s all good news,” he said, “but we do have to pay some attention to the fact that our actions do influence this virus going forward.”