Gov. Murphy urges social distancing as crowds flock to the beach this past weekend

Gov. Phil Murphy is urging New Jersey residents to remain vigilant about social distancing and the threat of COVID-19 as crowds of people visited the Jersey Shore this past weekend to escape the heat.

News 12 Staff

Jul 20, 2020, 3:31 PM

Updated 1,539 days ago

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Gov. Phil Murphy is urging New Jersey residents to remain vigilant about social distancing and the threat of COVID-19 as crowds of people visited the Jersey Shore this past weekend to escape the heat.
Temperatures soared into the 90s on Saturday and Sunday, so many beach and boardwalk visitors were not wearing masks, despite an executive order to wear masks outdoors if social distancing is not possible.
The governor is not threatening to close the beaches. But says that he wants beachgoers to take the virus seriously.
“My biggest concern is not what I see on the beach,” Murphy said. “My bigger concern is people jammed up waiting to go in to get a slice of pizza, waiting to go to the restroom.”
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People who are in the same family or who share the same household can still gather closely.
“I’m not talking about you’re on top of your wife, your brother, your kid, your father. I’m talking about when you’re in line and you’re on top of people who are not in your family and your posse that you’ve been hanging with,” Murphy said.
Meanwhile, a data reporting problem at one of the private labs processing coronavirus tests is somewhat skewing New Jersey’s virus numbers. Dr. Ed Lifshitz, head of the state’s Communicable Disease Services, says that the issue at Quest Diagnostic could affect 15,000 test results.
“If you assume that the positivity is about where we've been at 2-3% or so, then you're talking about somewhere between 250 to 400 or so positive case results, is what I'd expect to be added over the next couple days. But we'll see it of course when it comes to it,” Lifshitz said.
The state reported nine new coronavirus-related deaths on Monday. Two of those people died in June, the other seven died within the last three days.
For more on Monday's briefing, click here.
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