New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) speaks at the Coronavirus press briefing in Trenton.
Michael Brochstein | Barcroft Media | Getty Images
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday that the state’s schools will stay closed for the remainder of the academic year to continue to curb further spread of the coronavirus.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced last Friday that schools and colleges in New York will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year. Cuomo said there’s not enough time to come up with a reopening plan that would keep students and educators safe for schools to reopen this academic year.
New Jersey has been the second hardest-hit state in the U.S., following New York. While the state continues to have the second highest number of positive cases of Covid-19, the rate of new cases and hospitalizations have plateaued over the past few weeks.
After declaring state of emergency and a public health emergency on March 9, the governor closed all public and private schools and colleges in the state on March 18 to mitigate the spread of the disease.
New Jersey reported a total of 126,744 positive cases of Covid-19 and 7,871 fatalities, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
This is a developing story. Check back here for updates.