Highland Park Mayor Gayle Brill Mittler announced a townwide mask indoor mask mandate last week, due to rapidly increasing numbers of residents infected with Covid-19 both in Highland Park, Middlesex County, and in New Jersey.
The mandate requires masks in all indoor public settings within Highland Park. These settings, according to the executive order, include indoor religious services, public commercial establishments of any kind, or retail establishments of any kind.
“I took this action to do our part to mitigate and combat the spread of Covid-19,” Mayor Brill Mittler said. “With this action, Highland Park joins our neighbors New Brunswick, as well as other densely populated municipalities including Hoboken, Paterson, and Newark.”
“My top priority as mayor is to do whatever is needed to keep everyone in our borough as safe as is reasonably possible. From that vantage point, I take into account the CDC’s designation of our county as a red zone for COVID and the recent counsel of the medical team on the Mayor’s Wellness Campaign. These well regarded leaders in the field of infectious diseases have unanimously recommended that all institutions in the Borough strongly urge all who enter their doors to wear face masks inside, whenever they are not eating or drinking,” Brill Mittler said.
The mayor continued to urge all residents to get vaccinated and a booster to minimize the spread and severity of Covid-19. “Everyone, including me, wants to move past this very difficult chapter, but getting past that doesn’t mean wishing it away. It means using the tools within our power to mitigate the effects of this virus. While many of the current crop of COVID cases are mild (among the vaccinated), the spread of the virus still presents a clear hazard to our elderly, our friends, and our neighbors who are immunocompromised, those with underlying medical conditions, and others,” she said.
Highland Park Borough provides free testing for Covid-19 at the Community Center at 220 S. Sixth Ave in Highland Park. Appointments are required. For information on testing appointments, times, and where to get a vaccine, go to https://www.hpboro.com/Home/Components/News/News/1407/17.