NJ Mask Guidance Shifts As Pandemic Enters Another School Year

NEW JERSEY — For the past two years, COVID-19's presence increased from the summer to the fall in New Jersey. But with the pandemic crossing into another school year, federal health officials only advised people to mask up in a few of the state's counties.

The CDC adopted the community-level metric — a metric based on hospitalizations and case rates — in late February. The agency updates its color-coded COVID maps each Thursday, recommending masks in counties with "high" community levels. The CDC recommended masking for public, indoor spaces in three counties Thursday: Cape May, Atlantic and Salem Counties.

Here's how the map changed from the prior week's:

• Mercer County went from high to medium community levels, while Salem County went in the opposite direction.
• Hunterdon and Warren Counties improved from medium to low COVID levels.

The CDC's mask recommendations do not trigger any mandates in New Jersey. People may also choose to continue masking in any setting. Almost all New Jersey school districts have eliminated mask mandates. But the state's biggest — the Newark Public School District — will maintain its mask mandate when school returns. Read more: Mask Mandate Remains In Newark Schools As Return To Class Nears

Here's a look at the state of COVID in New Jersey as the school year gets underway.

NJ By The Numbers

The state had 973 hospital patients with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Thursday, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. That's a slight decline from about a week prior, when the state reported 1,013 COVID patients in hospitals as of Aug. 26.

Sixty-five people in New Jersey died from COVID illness in the past week, according to the CDC. About 3,800 people in the United States died from the virus during that span, according to federal estimates.

The CDC's statistical models show an average prediction of about 3,000 deaths per week in the nation over the next month, including about 60 per week in New Jersey.

New Jersey's transmission rate slightly increased in the past week but remained below the pivotal threshold of 1, jumping from 0.87 on Aug. 26 to 0.92 as of Friday, according to state officials. A transmission rate lower than 1 indicates that each existing infection causes less than one new infection — a sign that the virus's spread is slowing down.

True case totals became more difficult to calculate in recent months because of the prevalence of at-home tests that don't typically get recorded in COVID statistics. But New Jersey's case totals continue to decline. The state averaged 2,109 new cases per day in the past week — down from the average of 2,203 daily infections from the prior week and the summer's high mark of 3,767 daily cases for the week ending July 23, according to federal data.

For more coronavirus numbers, visit the state health department's COVID-19 dashboard, The New York Times data page for New Jersey and the CDC's data tracker.

What Else You Should Know

Here's more COVID news that could impact you.

• Federal officials granted emergency authorization to the nation's first variant-specific COVID vaccines. With the CDC's approval Thursday, federal officials expect appointments to become available soon.
• U.S. life expectancy dropped for a second straight year, largely because of the pandemic, according to the CDC. Life expectancy declined from 77 to 76.1 years — the nation's lowest figure since 1996.