Patriots’ Path Council is pleased to share that New Jersey summer camps will return to pre-COVID-19 operations for the 2022 season.

Governor Phil Murphy issued an Executive Order terminating the Public Health Emergency effective March 7, 2022. As a result of NJ Camp’s advocacy efforts, Governor Murphy has made specific reference in that Executive Order to sunset N.J. Department of Health’s Executive Directive 21-003 (camp directive), which removed the only pandemic public health authority left for NJDOH to regulate summer camps specifically as it relates to COVID-19 mitigation.

The action taken by Governor Murphy removes the authority of NJDOH to issue mandates on camps, including but not limited to cohorts, group sizes, quarantining, contact tracing, masks, additional cleaning/sanitizing, etc.

NJDOH will be focused mostly on dealing with any outbreaks at camp, but this is no different than its existing statutory authority in the N.J. Youth Camp Safety Act to address infectious/communicable disease at camp.

NJDOH may issue guidance specific to COVID outbreaks and PPC will be working closely with NJDOH on that prior to the season. It is also possible that NJDOH may issue “recommendations” that look very similar to the guidance of previous summers. NJDOH did this with schools and childcare last month – making it very clear it is issuing “recommendations” and not mandatory guidance.