Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to announce that students in grades kindergarten through 12 will need to wear masks at the start of the new school year, according to an administration official.

The announcement is expected to be made Friday at 1:30 p.m. at an event in East Brunswick.

The mandate comes as New Jersey experiences a surge in COVID-19 cases. State health officials say that 1,345 new positive PCR tests were reported on Thursday, up from 1,164 positive PCR tests on Wednesday.

Murphy and health officials have been encouraging all New Jersey residents who are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine, amid an outbreak of the delta variant of the virus. Murphy has previously said that nearly all of the recent positive cases of COVID-19 are among the unvaccinated.

Children under 12 years old are currently not eligible to get the vaccine.