All New Jersey students will be required to wear masks during the coming school year, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) is set to announce Friday.

The requirement, which Murphy spokesperson Mahen Gunaratna confirmed the governor plans to announce Friday afternoon, comes amid rising COVID-19 infections, even as New Jersey has one of the highest vaccination rates of adults in the country.

The mask policy represents a reversal for Murphy, who said in June he would let local school districts make their own policies. 

However, he has repeatedly stressed the move was contingent on there not being any serious deterioration in COVID-19 cases.

“I don’t want to go backward — that’s the last thing I want to do — but we’ll do what we have to do," Murphy, who is up for reelection this year, said during a news conference July 22.

The state has averaged more than 1,000 new cases a day over the past week, even though 68.5 percent of the eligible population is fully vaccinated. 

The vast majority of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are occurring among the unvaccinated and are largely due to the highly contagious delta variant.

Coronavirus hospitalizations in New Jersey increased to 599 on Thursday, almost double the 306 recorded on July 1. 

Hospitalizations were between 400 and 500 at the start of the last school year, when vaccines were not available.

The new directive follows a reversal from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which now recommends all faculty and students in K-12 schools wear masks, regardless of vaccination status. 

The new mask policy is politically risky and comes as Murphy runs for a second term. Republicans are adamantly opposed to the idea.

Many GOP governors, notably in Texas and Florida, have forbidden local districts from requiring masks and have threatened to withhold state funding from those that do.