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Several Democrat-led states are finally scaling back on masking requirements, citing declining COVID-19 case numbers for the changes rather than scientific evidence that they are not needed.
In recent days, New Jersey, New York, California, Connecticut, Oregon and Delaware have all announced new masking policies for at least some places or segments of the population.
DEMOCRATS SCRAMBLE TO REVERSE COURSE ON COVID RESTRICTIONS AHEAD OF MIDTERMS
“We felt with a four-week runway, based on our dropping in cases, hospitalizations, in-school transmission, increasing in vaccinations, God willing the under-5 kids being eligible sooner than later, a little bit warmer weather a month from now — that combination has allowed us to take this step,” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy told MSNBC earlier this week. Murphy is lifting his state’s mask mandate for schools and day cares effective March 7.
‘Dramatic decline’
Similarly, Connecticut is eliminating its statewide mandate by Feb. 28, leaving it up to local school officials to decide what is best for their students. Gov. Ned Lamont, like Murphy, also pointed to case numbers and vaccinations.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy.
(AP)
“Connecticut is seeing a dramatic decline in cases caused by the Omicron variant, and children over the age of 5 have had the ability to get vaccinated for more than three months now,” Lamont said in a statement Monday. “With this in mind, I think we are in a good position to phase out the requirement that masks be worn in all schools statewide and shift the determination on whether to require this to the local level.”
‘Much better place’
In Delaware, the statewide school mask mandate will expire at the end of March. For other indoor public places, masks will no longer be required as of Feb. 11.
“We’re in a much better place than we were several weeks ago,” Gov. John Carney tweeted…
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Source : foxnews
