Some U.S. governors are taking broad steps to discontinue school masking, saying the pandemic precaution is outweighed by widespread vaccination, lower transmission and the need for unimpeded instruction.
Governor Ned Lamont late Monday recommended that Connecticut end its mask mandate for schools and daycares on Feb. 28. New Jersey, where more than 1-in-9 residents is a public-school student, will end its order next month for 1.3 million in kindergarten through high school. Similar moves may come soon in New York and California.
“We’re not going to manage COVID to zero,” New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said Monday. “We have to learn how to live with COVID as we move from a pandemic to the endemic phase of this virus. We are finally nearing this inflection point.”