New Jersey doesn’t have immediate plans to follow New York City’s new rule requiring all teachers and government workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19, without the option for weekly testing, Gov. Phil Murphy said Wednesday.
The Democratic governor, who is up for re-election Nov. 2, also did not rule out taking that step in the future.
“Do we take anything off the table? We never take anything off the table, particularly given, as I’ve said many times, as we have all said, this thing is humbling,” Murphy said during his latest coronavirus briefing. “This virus takes a turn with some regularity that you don’t expect. At the moment, we like where we are, (but) we don’t rule anything out.”
Currently, the state requires school staff across the state and all state government employees to get vaccinated or undergo testing for the virus once to twice a week.
Murphy said vaccinations among those workers is “very high,” though the state has not yet released numbers.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday that all city employees, including police officers and firefighters, must now have gotten at least one shot of the vaccine by Oct. 29, removing the option for unvaccinated workers to undergo regular testing instead. Those who do not comply will be placed on indefinite unpaid leave.
That follows the same model de Blasio, a Democrat, took with teachers and school employees in the nation’s largest city.
Murphy has taken a cautious approach to more severe vaccine protocols in New Jersey.
He told NJ Advance Media last week he has no immediate plans to follow New York City in requiring people show proof of COVID-19 vaccinations to dine in a restaurant and attend an entertainment event, or to follow California and require eligible students be vaccinated against the virus. But, he said, both options “remain on the table.”
The New Jersey Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, favors a vaccination requirement that also includes a testing option. The NJEA is one of Murphy’s biggest political backers.
Former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, Murphy’s Republican opponent in the Nov. 2 governor’s race, opposes vaccine mandates but supports giving employees a testing option.
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New Jersey, an early coronavirus epicenter and home to more than 27,000 COVID-19 deaths, has seen its daily cases, hospitalization, and transmission rate drop in recent days after experiencing a late-summer surge.
Nearly 6 million million people who live, work or study in New Jersey — a state of about 9.2 million residents — have been fully vaccinated. Murphy has said more than 75% of those eligible in the state have been fully vaccinated.
But officials have called on more people to get vaccinated to prevent another wave as colder weather and the holiday season arrive.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @johnsb01.
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No plans for N.J. to follow NYC’s stricter COVID vaccine mandates for teachers, workers, Murphy says - NJ.com
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