Masks Required For Metuchen Borough Buildings Beginning Aug. 2

METUCHEN, NJ — With the COVID-19 positivity rate in New Jersey quadrupling from last month, Metuchen has reinstated its mask mandates for borough employees and visitors to public offices.

Beginning Monday, August 2, all visitors and employees will have to wear masks inside Borough buildings, according to the Metuchen website.

"The alarming recent increase in COVID infections is not just a national and State trend but it is a local one as well," Mayor Jonathan M Busch said in a Facebook post. "In the last week alone, the Borough has seen eight positive cases after just two in each of the prior two weeks."

The rise in cases is mainly due to the prevalence of the delta variant, first seen in India and first detected in the United States in March. This mutation of the virus spreads 50 percent faster than the alpha variant first seen in Great Britain, according to Yale Medicine.

"The sooner more people are vaccinated, the sooner our lives will return back to normal. Until then, however, this is going to continue to fluctuate," Busch said.

Recently Governor Phil Murphy "begged" unvaccinated Garden State residents to get a shot of the COVID-19 vaccine to help halt the spread of the virus. "I'm begging you, please, get vaccinated," Murphy said at Monday's COVID-19 briefing.

Meanwhile, New Jersey has among the highest vaccination rates in the country. As of Friday, 5,292,911 New Jersey residents were fully vaccinated. But the infection rate is up to 3.84 percent as reported on Monday.

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