PHILADELPHIA - As a winter surge of COVID-19 cases brought on by the highly-infectious Omicron variant continues to recede, some states have set a deadline for lifting mask mandates in schools.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stood by its recommendation for students to wear masks in school, New Jersey Gov.
Phil Murphy said this week that individual districts will have the power to set mask rules after Mar. 7. "We are not — and I’ve said this many times — going to manage COVID to zero," the governor said. "We have to learn how to live with COVID as we move from a pandemic to an endemic phase of this virus."Delaware Gov.
John Carney also announced this week that his state's school mask mandate will stay in effect until March 31. Philadelphia Commissioner of Health Dr.