Philadelphia Indoor, School Mask Mandates Remain While Most Of Delaware Valley Getting Closer To Normalcy
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia is a holdout, sticking with its indoor and school mask mandates, but most other places are dropping them. More schools are getting closer to being back to normal without COVID precautions.
In New Jersey, the school mask mandate will be ending on March 7.
"This is a huge step back to normalcy for our kids," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said
In announcing the end of the school mask mandate, Murphy said it's a reflection of decreasing COVID cases and increasing vaccination numbers.
Individual schools and districts will still have the ability to adapt their own mask guidance.
"Masking continues to be an important tool to prevent the spread of COVID and should be used in many circumstances," Murphy said.
In Delaware, masks will no longer be required at indoor public settings starting Friday, Feb. 11. The state will also lift its school mask mandate on March 31.
"That doesn't mean that this isn't going to continue to spread. But when prevalence is low, you have a lot of people who've been infected who have some level of immunity for a period of time and you have high vaccination rates, we can start to lean forward and take a little bit more risk and try to at least make sure that students in schools have some semblance of normalcy," former United States Commissioner of Food and Drugs Dr. Scott Gottlieb said.
Gov. Tom Wolf lifted Pennsylvania's school mask mandate last month, leaving it up to local districts, but Philadelphia is keeping its inside mask mandate following the current CDC recommendation of universal indoor masking for everyone in schools regardless of vaccination status.
"We are not at a point where we would drop the mask mandate. Eventually absolutely, but not at this time," Philadelphia Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said.
Starting Monday, Feb. 7, students in Philadelphia will need to have more than just a cloth mask. They'll also need to wear a three-ply disposable mask or something comparable to a KN95.
Health officials say cloth masks alone don't provide enough protection.