New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is standing by his decision to ease up on mask mandates for kids in school. Murphy made an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday where he stated that more school districts will be lifting mask mandates as the weather improves across the country and the effects of the omicron variant continue to subside.

“Our numbers are improving, and I would use the word ‘dramatically,'” Murphy told CBS during the interview.

“My gut tells me, particularly as we get into warmer weather in the spring and assuming the virus continues to go in the right direction, you’ll have the overwhelming a lot of districts following suit and lifting the mandate,” he said.

via Newsmax:

Murphy is among a group of Democrat governors who have eased mask requirements in schools while President Joe Biden continues to support mandates.

Biden on Thursday said mask requirements for children likely would start to fall away given federal plans to begin vaccinating children under the age of 5, but said it was probably premature to drop mask requirements entirely.

Murphy announced Feb. 7 that masks would no longer be required for students, staff, or visitors in New Jersey schools and childcare centers. The state had required students, teachers, and staff to wear masks since September 2020. The new rule goes into effect on March 7.

Under the new set of rules, individual school districts in the state will be able to decide for themselves whether or not they want to continue implementing mask mandates.

Murphy then gave a big compliment to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is continuing to encourage people to mask up.

“Rate of transmission, positivity rate hospitalizations, cases in school transmissions — all going in a dramatically good direction,” Murphy said during his conversation with CBS. “The challenge is this spike, this variant has spiked straight up, and it’s now coming straight down. New Jersey, New York, got hit early in this wave, as we have in all of the waves.”

“Our experience is very different right now from the average American state’s experience. So, the CDC, which we have been adherent to from the get-go, and we think they’re doing a terrific job, they’ve just got a much more complex reality. The science and the data and the facts on the ground in New Jersey have allowed us to take this step,” the governor stated.