New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) said Sunday that his state “went through hell” when the coronavirus pandemic occurred and “cannot afford to go through hell again.”
Murphy told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that New Jersey has “paid a huge price” with its at least 13,333 confirmed deaths after the state and New York served as a previous epicenter of the pandemic in the United States.
The Democratic governor called for a national strategy, as New Jersey has seen spikes in reinfection of people returning from visits to out-of-state locations like Myrtle Beach and Florida.
“For me, he says we need a national strategy. We are now as strong as our weakest link, ”he said. “As you mentioned in the beginning of the show, I said ‘We went through hell. We cannot afford to go through hell again. ‘”
“We need a national strategy, I think, right now, and masking has to be at the center of that,” he added.
CLOCK: @GovMurphy (DN.J.) tells @Mitchellreports that “we need a national strategy … [and] masking is at the core of that. “#MTP #IfItsSunday
“We are going through hell. We cannot afford to go through hell again.” pic.twitter.com/HpYttwsVmY
– Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) July 5, 2020
The governor also called for a national mask requirement, saying “it has hardly been debated.”
The pandemic hit New Jersey hard and has counted a total of 173,033 confirmed cases, according to the state health department.
Now other states like Arizona, California, Florida and Texas are struggling with the increase in the number of cases in the reopened states.
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