Gov. Phil Murphy speaking at a coronavirus briefing. | Pool Photo by Patti Sapone, NJ.com
New Jersey will enter the next phase of its economic reopening beginning in two weeks, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday.
The Garden State has lost more that 11,700 residents to Covid-19 since March, but sustained declines in both the number of new positive cases and hospitalizations has allowed state officials to move forward with developing guidance for outside dining, in-person retail and personal grooming services like barbershops and salons.
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“We are ready to move to Stage Two of our restart and recovery. And, assuming we do not see a precipitous backslide which would put the breaks to our plans — and we reserve that right — we will enter Stage Two on Monday, June 15,” Murphy said during his daily coronavirus press briefing in Trenton. “This will continue to be a phased-in restart based on a careful analysis [of health data and risk factors].”
Nonessential retailers and restaurants will be able to begin offering in-person service starting June 15. Hair salons and barber shops will open the following week, June 22. Guidance for other businesses like in-person clinical research labs, fitness centers, government services such as the Motor Vehicle Commission and museums and libraries will be forthcoming, Murphy said.
By the end of the week, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli and her staff will deliver industry-specific guidance for businesses eligible to open in Stage Two.
While he declined to go too far in the weeds during his press conference, Murphy said to expect practices that have become standards in essential businesses like pharmacies and grocery stores.
Retail businesses will still have to maintain social distancing among customers and staff. Clerks will likely be required to wear gloves and masks. Cash registers and check-out counters will be mounted with plexiglass.
Companies whose workers can work from home will be expected to to continue that practice, Murphy said.
“Let’s use common sense for the common good,” he said.
Monday’s announcement was the latest of several steps the administration has taken in recent weeks to develop a road map for reopening the economy.
Large swaths of the state were effectively shut down by Murphy’s stay-at-home order on March 21. Since then, beginning with the reopening of parks and golf courses a month ago, the governor has issued a series of orders that allowed nonessential businesses to offer curbside service, expanded the maximum size of outdoor gatherings and approved the resumption of child care services.
New Jersey has managed to maintain steady declines in the number of new Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations over the last several weeks, with the state reporting just 509 cases on Monday afternoon, compared to late March and April, when daily case totals were regularly eclipsing 3,000.
While Monday’s new case data may be skewed by weekend-related lags, hospitalizations are also falling.
As of 10 p.m. Sunday, 2,344 patients who had tested positive or are suspected of having Covid-19 were hospitalized. Of those, 646 were in critical or intensive care and 469 required ventilators.
Murphy said he’s also been emboldened by steep increases in the state’s daily testing capacity and declines in the daily spot positivity rate of those tests, which had dropped to 3.5 percent. New Jersey is now testing more people per capita than any other state, according to The Covid Tracking Project.
“As we open, we know there is a greater risk for transmission of the virus,” Murphy said. “This is why one of our critical data points was testing capacity. And we now have robust testing in place to test more people and identify more outbreaks.“
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