NJ Mask Mandates Guided By ‘Local Realities,’ Gov. Says

NEW JERSEY — As the delta variant spurs a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases across the country, federal officials over the weekend recommended the use of masks in public. But while numbers continue to spike in New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said that decision should reflect "local realities."

Speaking during a news conference Monday afternoon, Murphy said he's also not backing down on his stance that schools need to return to a fully in-person, five-day a week format in the fall.

And while the state is not mandating the use of masks among unvaccinated students, school districts can go beyond what the state is recommending, Murphy said.

"The CDC matters a lot to us," Murphy said. "We largely look to the CDC for a lot of guidance. We always take that into consideration, but you have to take into account the reality of what your state looks like. A national recommendation may or may not be consistent with the facts on the ground."

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In New Jersey, the facts on the ground are that the state has among the highest vaccination rates in the country. As of Monday, 5,240,590 New Jersey residents that were eligible to be vaccinated against the coronavirus were fully vaccinated.

But the numbers are also going up. New Jersey's infection rate is up to 3.84 percent, and hospitalizations are up, according to the numbers released by the New Jersey Department of Health on Monday. (See below)

See related: Delta Variant Continues Spread Despite NJ Vaccination Compliance

Those numbers are up from a small number, though, Murphy said, and he uses hospitalization rates to help guide his decisions.

"We can not remotely run the risk of our healthcare systems getting overrun," Murphy said. "And we're not even close to that."

He said he's happy with the stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE), vaccinations, tests, ventilators and available hospital beds should what he has called the "pandemic of the unvaccinated" spiral out of control.

He's also confident with the guidelines the Department of Health released earlier this summer concerning a safe return to school, at least for now. Read more here: What Will NJ Schools Look Like In Fall 2021? Here's A Preview

"We fully expect to be back to school Monday through Friday, full days, as close to a normal school year as possible," Murphy said. "We put out a substantial guidance with lots of recommendations. We've also said where it relates to things like masking or other things of that nature in the public health realm that superintendents could choose to be stricter than we are, but we fully expect that kids will be full-time, in-person."

He made a point that the "virus dictates" what happens. Said Murphy: "We do our best to call balls and strikes based on the facts and stay out ahead of it, but that's the reality that we're living with."