Friday marks biggest return to normalcy yet
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
TRENTON – The state is lifting the indoor mask requirement effective Friday and eliminating the 6-foot social distancing requirement indoors and outdoors, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday afternoon in his COVID-19 press conference.
The state also will end the 6-foot social distancing requirement, including in bars and restaurants, where dance floors will reopen and people will not longer have to remain seated to eat and drink.
Murphy said state officials have always been guided by the science and data. As far back as December, he noted, New Jersey was targeted Memorial Day “to take the strongest steps” on the path to reopening the economy.
As part of the data, the governor said there are more than 4 million New Jersey residents who have been fully vaccinated and that almost 8.4 million doses of vaccine have been given across the state.
The changes
Effective this Friday, May 28, the statewide indoor mask mandate will be lifted. Individual businesses or entities can still require customers, guests or employees to wear them.
Masks will continue to be be required in:
– Health care settings and long-term care facilities;
– Correctional facilities;
– Homeless shelters;
– Airplanes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation;
– In airports, bus and train stations and other transit hubs;
– Public-facing state offices such as Motor Vehicle Commission agencies;
– Worksites close to the public including warehousing and manufacturing facilities.
– Child-care centers and facilities;
– Youth summer camps;
– Public, private or parochial preschool program premises and elementary and secondary schools including charter and renaissance schools.
He explained the reason behind the requirements for young people is because children ages 12 and under are not eligible to be vaccinated. The cohort from 12 to 15 has been only eligible for vaccination for a few weeks.
“If you are not vaccinated – first of all, get vaccinated – but if not, continue to follow the CDC guidance to wear a face mask in any indoor public setting,” Murphy said.
Law enforcement will not be checking vaccination status, he added, but he encouraged people to act responsibly. He also said people who feel comfortable wearing their masks can continue to do so. “No one should mistake lifting the indoor mask mandate as meaning you cannot wear a mask indoors,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with being cautious with your own health.”
Murphy said the state won’t tolerate people being harassed or discriminated against because they continue to wear masks.
Murphy also announced that starting Friday, the 6-foot social distancing requirement is being lifted in all indoor and outdoor settings. That includes businesses and restaurants, personal care businesses, gyms and entertainment businesses such as casinos.
That distancing requirement also is ending for church services, political events, performances and other gatherings. Businesses, however, can continue to require those distances.
People who are not vaccinated are encouraged to maintain the distances.
The state also is opening dance floors at bars and restaurants effective Friday and no longer requiring patrons to remain seated while ordering, eating and drinking.
More restrictions to be lifted June 4
Effective June 4, the governor said, all limits on indoor gatherings – the 50-person limit and the 250-person limit on things such as political activities, performances and weddings – will be lifted, as will the 30 percent limit on large indoor venues with fixed seating capacity of 1,000 or more.
“These steps, when all added together, are the clearest signs of our commitment to carefully and deliberately opening our state after what has been a truly crushing almost 15-month period,” Murphy said.
The governor said New Jersey was the first state to put in place an indoor masking requirement starting April 8, 2020 with the first wave of COVID-19. “The mask mandate was unquestionably the right call,” he said. Murphy said he did not regret keeping the masking requirement in place for an extra two weeks after the CDC dropped the requirement.
Pandemic numbers statewide, locally
Since the pandemic was declared in March 2020, there have been 885,907 cases of COVID-19, according to the New Jersey Department of Health, with the vast majority of cases in the greater New York City metro area, including Bergen County with 89,497 cases, Middlesex with 84,499 and Essex with 84,361.
The Cape May County Department of Health has reported 8,753 cases total during the pandemic as of Friday, May 21, along with 203 fatalities. Active cases had dropped to a total of 72 countywide, with the highest numbers in Wildwood (20), Middle Township (16) and Lower Township (12). Ocean city had six active cases and Upper Township had two cases.
There were three deaths attributed to the coronavirus over the week ending Friday, including a 90-year-old female from Middle Township, a 52-year-old male from North Wildwood and a 61-year-old male from West Cape May. The county also announced only two COVID-positive admissions on Thursday at Cape Regional Medical Center.
The county’s vaccine clinic is open to walk-ins 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays, Wednesday and Friday, 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays and 8 a.m. to noon Saturdays at the Field House at Lower Cape May Regional High School. Anyone who wants a vaccine can walk in.
The Atlantic County Division of Public Health reported Monday there was a total of only seven new cases of COVID-19 countywide. Two were reported in each of Somers Point and Pleasantville and one each in Atlantic City, Hammonton and Buena Borough.
In recent days, the new cases totaled 17 on Sunday, 15 on Saturday, 21 on Friday and 13 each on last Thursday and Wednesday. There were four deaths attributed to the coronavirus between May 18 and 24.
There have been a total of 27,133 cases in Atlantic County and 657 fatalities since March 2020.
The Atlantic City Convention Center megasite is open by appointment only for eligible recipients. Call (855) 568-0545 or to find other vaccination sites, go online to covid19.nj.gov/finder.