Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday that he anticipates lifting his school mask mandate before the end of the academic year if the numbers continue to drop as fast as they did in South Africa and the U.K., where the highly contagious omicron variant first hit. (northjersey.com)
Health care workers in New Jersey and anybody else who has a job in "high-risk congregate settings" like long-term care and correctional facilities must be vaccinated for COVID-19 and can no longer opt out by undergoing weekly testing, Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday.
The new law establishes tougher punishment for violations of state and federal codes – particularly if a facility is cited multiple times for the same failures. It requires the state Department of Health to establish a “scaling system” of actions, and of penalties.
Gov. Phil Murphy said today that he has declared another health emergency in the state to keep emergency measures in place to try to contain the spread of COVID-19 – including requiring masks in schools – ahead of them expiring at the end of the day.
The Supreme Court’s majority seemed skeptical of the Biden administration’s authority to impose a vaccine-or-testing mandate on companies with 100 or more employees. The court, during arguments on Friday, seemed more open to a separate vaccine mandate for most health care workers.