Murphy’s announcement comes even though the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still recommending face coverings in schools and daycares across the country.
The state’s seven-day average for new cases at the time was 470 cases. As of Monday, the seven-day average was 2,563.
There are also questions of whether school mask mandates have been effective at all. During an interview Monday on CNN, Murphy said there’s “no question” the school mask mandate has been “a very smart public health step.” Murphy did note the state has recorded about 2,650 COVID-19 cases among students linked directly to in-school transmission. That’s out of more than 1.4 million students.
“Even if the lifting might be justified solely on the science of pandemic management, it’ll still be seen as political,” Dworkin said.