Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday that he is slowing the gradual reopening of New Jersey after months of coronavirus block orders, as the state’s transmission rate has passed key mark 1 for the first time in 10 weeks.
Murphy did not say he is backing off any steps that Garden State has already taken, but said, “We’re not going to jump the gun on many more opening steps right now.”
“We are here now,” said the governor during his last coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “I guess we’ll be here a little bit.”
New Jersey is currently in Stage 2 of a multi-sentence reopening plan that Murphy unveiled in May. The governor added that officials will restart the process if they see the state’s transmission rate and daily positivity rate drop and remain low.
The governor said the transmission rate (the number of people an infected resident passes COVID-19 on) is one of the key figures officials look at when deciding how to gradually remove the restrictions.
The rate had dropped to 0.70 in early June, but has increased in recent days. It is now at 1.03, which means that each infected resident transmits the virus to more than one person.
“This is an early warning sign that, frankly, we have to do more,” Murphy said.
Once it became a hot spot for coronavirus, New Jersey has seen its daily numbers (new deaths, new cases, and hospitalizations) drop in recent weeks.
With those numbers falling and the economy suffering, Murphy has allowed retail stores, indoor shopping malls, casinos, amusement parks and more to reopen in recent weeks, all with capacity limits and other guidelines.
Stage 2 continued on Monday, with summer camps, summer school, and outdoor graduation ceremonies allowed to resume and NJ Transit returning to a full schedule Monday through Friday.
But Murphy canceled plans to allow restaurants and bars to offer limited interior dining starting last Thursday, citing troubling figures from other states. Outdoor dining is still allowed.
Then came the news on Monday about the transmission rate.
Authorities said the reason for the rate increase is a mix of more closed businesses reopening during Stage 2, as well as residents bringing the virus after visiting other states with new cases.
They said there is no evidence that massive outdoor activity at beaches, parks or protests has caused major spikes in the cases.
Murphy also said state officials are considering requiring that people in New Jersey cover their faces while outdoors.
Currently, masks are required only when you are indoors in a public place. But Murphy said during a television interview on Sunday that there should be a national mandate to wear masks whenever someone is in public, indoors or outdoors.
“We are constantly evaluating and reevaluating the recommendations we have,” said the governor during Monday’s briefing. “The virus is much less lethal in the open air, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t lethal.”
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New Jersey, a densely populated state of 9 million residents, has reported 15,229 known deaths attributed to COVID-19 – 13,373 laboratory-confirmed and 1,856 probable – with 173,611 known cases in just over four months since the first case of the been in March 4)
Authorities on Monday reported 20 new deaths related to the virus and 216 new cases.
About 1.3 million Garden State residents have applied for unemployment benefits as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economy. But the number of workers who filed last week fell by 15%.
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