Mask Mandate Returns to National Park in New Jersey

A requirement to wear face masks indoors has been reinstated at a New Jersey national park after an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the area.

People wearing face masks walk on the street in a file photo. Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times

An indoor mask mandate has been reimposed at the Sandy Hook unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area in New Jersey’s Monmouth County, amid an uptick in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the area, per a statement on the park’s website.

The decision to reinstate the mask mandate was made after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that COVID-19 hospital admissions were high in Monmouth County.

“Masks are currently required in all federal buildings in Sandy Hook,” the statement reads. “Monmouth County is at HIGH Covid-19 community level, as identified by the CDC.”

The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Monmouth County currently sits at 20.4 per 100,000, according to a Jan. 12 update.

The CDC considers readings above 20 to be “high.” For this level of hospital admissions, the agency recommends measures such as wearing masks or respirators and, for people at high risk of getting very sick, avoiding nonessential indoor activities in public.

‘Masks Are Required’

Daphne Yun, a spokesperson for the Gateway National Recreational Area, which is managed by the National Park Service, confirmed to The Epoch Times in an emailed statement that the reinstatement of the mask mandate came because the CDC raised its alert level.

“Masks are required in buildings in counties with high COVID 19 community levels,” Ms. Yun said. “Sandy Hook is located in Monmouth County, which currently is at High COVID-19 community level.”

A discarded face mask is pictured on a sidewalk in Long Beach, Calif., on Aug. 22, 2020. Apu Gomes/AFP/Getty Images

Other locations in New Jersey are also requiring people to don masks, including major hospitals.

New Jersey currently has one of the highest COVID-19 test positivity rates in the country, at 15.8 percent, according to CDC data as of Jan. 6.

There’s no statewide mask mandate in place in New Jersey, and Gov. Phil Murphy hasn’t indicated any plans for one.

Mandates Return

Amid a rise in various respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, a number of hospitals and local governments have brought back mask mandates at health care facilities.

The mandates have been revived in recent weeks in states including New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington, while four hospital systems in and around the Philadelphia area implemented masking requirements.

Los Angeles County recently announced that it will require masking in certain hospital settings when the county hits a “medium” level for COVID-19 hospitalizations, which the CDC defines as between 10 and 19.9 new hospital admissions for every 100,000 people.

Authorities in New York City recently implemented a mask mandate for all of the city’s 11 public hospitals and various health care and long-term care centers across the five boroughs.

Hospitals in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Delaware, and Washington state have also imposed similar mask requirements, according to reports.

By contrast, certain states have made it clear they won’t be reimposing mask mandates, including Arkansas and Texas.

Pledges Against Mandates

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, in August 2023 that there would be “NO mask mandates in Texas.”

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, said in a post on X last summer that she would oppose any COVID-19 lockdowns or mandates.

“As long as I’m Governor, Arkansas will not lock down,” she wrote. “We will not close schools, churches, or businesses. And we will not have mask or COVID vaccine mandates.”

Some studies have questioned the use of masks to prevent viral transmission, including a review published about a year ago at the Cochrane Library that analyzed 78 randomized controlled trials and found that they didn’t show “a clear reduction in respiratory viral infection with the use of medical/surgical masks.”

There have also been studies suggesting that people who wore masks were more likely to contract COVID-19 than those who didn’t. Despite acknowledged limitations of the Norwegian study, which urged “caution” when interpreting the results, the researchers noted that recommendations to wear face masks in the community were “largely informed by low certainty evidence from observational studies,” calling into question the validity of mask mandates.

In January 2021, the CDC issued an order that required travelers in public transportation hubs to wear masks, and a separate order mandated masks for any interstate travel, including on ferries, buses, and planes.

A judge ended the federal mask mandate in 2022; the federal government’s COVID-19 public health emergency ended in May 2023.

Jack Phillips and Naveen Athrapully contributed to this report, which has been updated with remarks from a spokesperson for the Gateway National Recreational Area.