Some towns along the Jersey Shore had to close parts of their beaches this weekend because of a large influx of visitors.

The crowds caused some to be concerned about the risk of COVID-19, including Gov. Phil Murphy.

Bunnie Rogers says that what she saw at Pier Village in Long Branch on Sunday horrified her. 

“Sunday was a complete catastrophe. There wasn’t a single person who was on line waiting for the beach wearing masks,” she says.

But despite the crowds, Long Branch officials say that everything was under control. Long Branch Business Administrator George Jackson says that the visitors provide the city with much-needed revenue. He also says that beach attendants were constantly monitoring crowd size.

“We are happy that we have so many people come. Our job is to manage and manage it safely, and we’re doing everything we can and we are learning as we go,” he says. “Some of our veteran beach employees have never seen anything like this over 20 years. The influx is just something that we haven’t experienced before.”

Despite the crowded beaches and sporadic closures going all the way back to June, city officials say that they have not seen any spike in positive COVID-19 cases. They say that the data shows that only one positive case in Long Branch has been reported in the last 24 hours.

“We are experiencing heavier days all throughout the summer so far, and we attribute a lot of that to the fact there’s not really that many places to go. Malls have been shut down, movie theaters, indoor dining,” Jackson says.

He says that the beach closures will continue this weekend in parts of the city if the crowds return in similar numbers.

Belmar also closed some beaches on Sunday due to overcrowding. The borough administrator says that they are now down to the lowest number of positive COVID-19 patients in months.