Gov. Phil Murphy says that he cannot let individual school districts make their own decisions on student masking.

The governor answered some questions for the first time since he declared a new public health emergency this week. The move keeps the school mask mandate for at least another 30 days.

“There’s not enough variance in the positivity rates of the testing in the state that would suggest easily that District X could do one thing and District Y another. It’s too common in terms of the numbers right now across the whole state,” Murphy said.

The public health emergency declaration came the day after state lawmakers rebuffed the governor's bid to extend his emergency powers.