Fox News Flash top headlines for February 7
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Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy plans to lift the state’s school mask mandate for children and staffers.
Murphy is slated to make the announcement on Monday during a pandemic briefing in Trenton. The mandate will officially be lifted on March 7, an official with the governor’s office confirmed to Fox News Digital on Monday morning.
Phil Murphy, the Democratic Party nominee for governor of New Jersey, and his family arrive to vote in Middletown, New Jersey, Nov. 7, 2017. ( REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)
Murphy last renewed the school mask mandate last month by declaring a public health emergency.
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"These requirements again give us no joy, but they’re the only responsible course of action at this time," he said at the time.
Murphy hinted at ending the mask mandate for schools last week, as cases of the coronavirus plummeted after a spike fueled by the omicron variant last year.
"I look to a time in this school year where we are no longer masking in our schools," Murphy said last Tuesday.
Murphy’s executive orders requiring masks be worn by students and teachers in schools faced a lawsuit last year. A U.S. district judge, however, denied a request for a preliminary injunction to block the state’s mask mandate in December, calling the in-school mask mandate "rational."
Gov. Phil Murphy casts his vote at the Arts and Cultural Center in Long Branch, New Jersey, on Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. (John Jones /NJ Advance Media via AP)
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Masks also became optional for thousands of students across 140 school districts in Illinois starting Monday. A judge in the state issued a temporary restraining order preventing the school districts from requiring masks.
The state’s attorney general has filed a request for an emergency stay.
