Masking Guidance Changes In NJ As COVID Numbers Shift

NEW JERSEY — Federal health officials reduced their masking recommendations for indoor, public spaces in the Garden State. On Thursday, the CDC advised New Jerseyans in 11 counties to wear face coverings, removing two counties off its list for mask guidance.

The CDC recommends masking in counties with "high" COVID-19 community levels — a metric based on hospitalizations and case rates that the agency adopted in late February. The agency updates its color-coded COVID maps each Thursday.

This week, the agency recommended masking in Sussex, Morris, Warren, Hunterdon, Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Atlantic, Gloucester and Cape May Counties. Mercer and Salem Counties moved into the "medium" community-level category Thursday, which now includes 10 of the state's counties.

The CDC's mask recommendations don't trigger any mandates in New Jersey. People may also choose to continue masking in any setting.

But the reduced masking recommendations mark another sign of the recent COVID wave slowing down in New Jersey. Meanwhile, the state had 851 hospital patients with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Thursday — down from 927 a week ago, according to the New Jersey Department of Health.

Meanwhile, New Jersey averaged 3,636 new cases per day in the past week, according to federal data. That's now far down from the seven-day case average on June 2 (3,845 daily infections) but well lower than the seven-day average of 5,073 daily cases recorded on May 24 — New Jersey's highest mark during the springtime wave.

Eighty-four people in New Jersey died from COVID in the past week, according to the CDC.

All of New Jersey has high COVID transmission — as does most of the nation, according to the CDC. The map below shows COVID activity levels according to the CDC's prior framework for determining them, which prioritized transmission:

But New Jersey had a transmission rate of 0.87 as of Friday morning, according to the state health department. That's down from the rate of 0.96 one week prior. A transmission rate lower than 1 indicates that each existing infection causes less than one new infection, indicating the spread of the virus is slowing down.

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