By Hanna Park
(TRENTON, N.J.) All New Jersey students will be required to wear masks during the upcoming school year in the fall, The Hill reported Friday.
The new rule comes amid rising coronavirus cases, even as New Jersey has one of the highest vaccination rates among adults in the country. Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is set to announce the requirement later on Friday, according to spokesperson Mahen Gunaratna.
The mask policy is a reversal for Murphy, who said earlier in June that he would allow local school districts to make their own policies.
“I don’t want to go backward — that’s the last thing I want to do — but we’ll do what we have to do," Murphy, who is up for reelection this year, said during a news conference July 22.
New Jersey reported an average of over 1,000 new daily cases over the past week, while coronavirus hospitalizations increased to 599 on Thursday — almost double the 306 recorded on July 1.
The vast majority of new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths were among the unvaccinated and largely due to the highly contagious delta variant. About 68.5% of the eligible population is fully vaccinated, according to state data.