School mask mandates will be lifted next month in New Jersey and Delaware, and will be lifted by the end of the month in Connecticut, the governors of the respective states announced on Feb. 7. The New Jersey mandate will be lifted on March 7, Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, wrote on Twitter. “Balancing public health with getting back to some semblance of normalcy is not easy. But we can responsibly take this step due to declining COVID numbers and growth in vaccinations.” Like many states, New Jersey saw an explosion in COVID-19 cases in late 2021, but the numbers have since dropped precipitously, from a peak of 33,459 on Jan. 7 to just 1,625 on Feb. 6. Hospitalizations attributed to COVID-19 have also gone down recently in the majority of states. The number of people vaccinated, meanwhile, has continued to grow. The vaccines offer reduced protection against the Omicron …