Gov. Phil Murphy, D-N.J., is defending his decision to ease mask mandates for schools in his blue state.
Murphy, appearing Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," said more school districts will lift mask mandates as weather improves nationally and the effects of the omicron variant continue to subside.
"Our numbers are improving, and I would use the word 'dramatically,'" Murphy told CBS.
"My gut tells me, particularly as we get into warmer weather in the spring and assuming the virus continues to go in the right direction, you'll have the overwhelming a lot of districts following suit and lifting the mandate."
Murphy is among a group of Democrat governors who have eased mask requirements in schools while President Joe Biden continues to support mandates.
Biden on Thursday said mask requirements for children likely would start to fall away given federal plans to begin vaccinating children under the age of 5, but said it was probably premature to drop mask requirements entirely.
Murphy announced Feb. 7 that masks would no longer be required for students, staff, or visitors in New Jersey schools and childcare centers. The state had required students, teachers, and staff to wear masks since September 2020. The new rule goes into effect on March 7.
Under the new rules, individual New Jersey school districts will be able to decide whether they want to continue implementing masking rules.
The governor went out of his way to compliment the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which continues to encourage mask wearing.
"Rate of transmission, positivity rate hospitalizations, cases in school transmissions — all going in a dramatically good direction," Murphy told CBS. "The challenge is this spike, this variant has spiked straight up, and it’s now coming straight down. New Jersey, New York, got hit early in this wave, as we have in all of the waves.
"Our experience is very different right now from the average American state’s experience. So, the CDC, which we have been adherent to from the get-go, and we think they’re doing a terrific job, they’ve just got a much more complex reality. The science and the data and the facts on the ground in New Jersey have allowed us to take this step."
Murphy also commented about Virginia, where Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., is facing a lawsuit from several school boards after lifting mask requirements.
"They've done that backwards," Murphy insisted to CBS. "They basically banned mandates and then said to the district, 'Sue us to get that overturned.'"
Reuters contributed to this story.
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