5 Reasons Why Gov. Murphy Won't Lift NJ COVID-19 Mask Mandate Yet

NEW JERSEY — His neighbors to the west and east — New York and Pennsylvania — have lifted their indoor and outdoor mask mandates for vaccinated people. And Gov. Phil Murphy says that the numbers in New Jersey are not only trending in the right direction but that they're also the best they've been since the pandemic began.

Still, Murphy stuck to keeping the indoor mask mandate this week. And while he did sign an executive order Monday lifting the outdoor mask mandate for vaccinated people, Murphy provided some big reasons why he's not budging just yet.

Murphy made the announcement during a news conference Monday, shortly after Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the mask mandate in New York will end Wednesday. Pennsylvania had already confirmed it will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's updated guidance on masking. Read more: New Mask Rules In Effect In PA

The decision was a bit of a surprise given that New Jersey has often acted in concert with New York. Even more surprising was that Murphy, after saying that New Jersey's rules essentially reflect the actions of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, did not follow CDC guidance this time.

“We still have a very high degree of cooperation, engagement and, in many respects, coordination,” Murphy said of the relationship between New Jersey and neighboring states that have lifted their mandates.

Now New Jersey remains one of the few states — including California — that is holding on to its masks.

Here are some of Murphy's reasons:

Lurching backward

Murphy says New Jersey is the only state that hasn't had to reverse its reopening orders, and he doesn't want to be the last.

The possible exception would be when he decided to delay the reopening of indoor dining last summer. But Murphy says too many people are still in the hospital and too many people still are getting sick.

Murphy said he doesn’t want to see the state go "backward."

“I don’t want to get burned. I don’t want to go back,” Murphy said. “We’re the only state in America that has not gone back once, and I don’t want to start now.”

While cases are decreasing, the coronavirus is still a threat, he said.

There were 13 new deaths related to COVID-19 and 556 new cases reported Monday. There are also 4,128 variant cases, and five new cases of multi-system inflammatory syndrome among children, one of whom is hospitalized.

“When you’ve got this thing going in the right direction, the more time you can put on the clock, the more chances that you’re going to put this thing permanently into the ground,” Murphy said.

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation

New Jersey has 9 million people living in an area that's not much bigger than Delaware. The lack of elbow room in the state, as a result, means that the Garden State is more susceptible to seeing the virus spread.

Murphy noted that the state's dense population made it very difficult to control the virus when it first hit in March 2020. The problem is especially apparent in New Jersey's densely populated urban areas where the vaccination rate is still way too low.

The burden on businesses

Many businesses have called on Murphy to relax the coronavirus restrictions so New Jersey can regain the retail customers that were lost.

But Murphy believes that business owners could face another burden: policing people to wear masks if they haven't been vaccinated.

Murphy said he doesn’t want to put the burden on local business owners to enforce mask policies.

“We're not checking anyone's vaccine status at the door. It's unfair to put the burden on business owners and front-line workers to police every patron,” Murphy said.

New Jersey still needs to get people vaccinated

Murphy said the CDC guidance shows it is safer for vaccinated people to engage in everyday life than for unvaccinated people, giving everyone even more of a reason to get vaccinated.

But Murphy said he's leaving the mandate in place to buy more time for everyone to get vaccinated, again noting that while nearly half of the state's adult population is fully vaccinated, some of the state's cities have immunization rates as low as 15 percent.

"Dr. Tony Fauci has said, even after the CDC's announcement, that widespread removal of mask mandates, especially indoors, could reignite the virus," Murphy said.

Virus more lethal indoors than outdoors

The virus continues to be more lethal inside than it is outside, and that's not good when the majority of New Jersey residents are still not vaccinated, Murphy said.

“We have said if you can socially distance outdoors, you don’t need to wear a mask. If you’re at an indoor gathering, you’re in a bubble with people you’ve been with. We think we have this thing on the run, and as it relates to public places, we’re just not there yet,” Murphy said.

Murphy said there was not one metric that would indicate to New Jersey health officials that it was time to remove the mandate. He said health officials are looking at a range of data, including spot positivity, intensive care, rate of transmission, variants, not one piece of data.

There are those in New Jersey who don’t feel as strongly about keeping their masks as Murphy.

The governor has come under fire from state lawmakers who have criticized the governor for not following CDC guidelines and science and ending mask requirements, social distancing and "outdated" mandates and restrictions.

“The CDC has, as a pleasant surprise, acknowledged the now-overwhelming data we have that vaccinated or naturally immune people aren't getting COVID themselves or giving it to others,” said state Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth). “The CDC and the Biden administration have joined those of us wisely and reasonably calling for an end to mask-wearing and social distancing mandates.” Read more here: NJ Lawmakers Call On Gov. Murphy To Lift COVID Mask Restrictions

“It’s unbelievable that Governor Murphy is doubling-down on an anti-science mask mandate that the CDC says is no longer necessary,” said state Sen. Michael Testa (R-Atlantic/Cape May/Cumberland). “With the CDC clearly stating that masks serve no public health purpose, Pennsylvania, New York and many other states have already lifted restrictions or announced plans to do so this week. Instead of following the science here in New Jersey, we have a governor who continues to restrict personal freedoms to cater to the irrational fears of a timid liberal constituency.”

On the other hand, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), a union that represents 52,000 New Jersey front-line workers, has been critical of the CDC’s new guidance, and it applauded Murphy for not lifting the mask mandate in New Jersey.

“Governor Murphy is showing the leadership New Jersey workers and families need by putting public health and safety first and keeping the state’s mask mandate in place,” the UFCW said in a prepared statement. “While vaccinations are helping us slow the spread of COVID, the pandemic is far from over, and we cannot let our guard down. As the union for front-line food and retail workers in New Jersey and across the country, UFCW is calling on governors to follow the lead of states like New Jersey and Hawaii that are doing the right thing by keeping these life-saving mask mandates in place as we work to vaccinate the millions of Americans still at risk as this pandemic continues.”

Under the new guidelines, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that "you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing before the pandemic" if you've been fully vaccinated.

However, the CDC did say that Americans need to abide by "state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance" before changing their behavior.

Vaccinated people still have to wear masks at hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care settings, when using public transportation and at traveling hubs.

Here is the new CDC guidance if you've been fully vaccinated:

• You can resume activities that you did prior to the pandemic.
• You can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying 6 feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.
• If you travel in the United States, you do not need to get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.
• You need to pay close attention to the situation at your international destination before traveling outside the United States.
  • You do NOT need to get tested before leaving the United States unless your destination requires it.
  • You still need to show a negative test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding an international flight to the United States.
  • You should still get tested three to five days after international travel.
  • You do NOT need to self-quarantine after arriving in the United States.
• If you've been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.
  • However, if you live or work in a correctional or detention facility or a homeless shelter and are around someone who has COVID-19, you should still get tested, even if you don't have symptoms.