TRENTON, NJ – As Governor Murphy moves to increase indoor capacity in restaurants, salons, barbers, gyms and other indoor businesses this Friday, he also gave New Jersey a stern warning. With the indoor limits being increased as the pandemic begins to subside and residents are receiving vaccinations, the state could slowly begin to move toward a full reopening, but only if people aren’t knuckleheads.
Murphy said he will not hesitate to shut the entire state down over knucklehead behavior and he’s done it before.
Last summer, Murphy closed bars after a report of one bar in New Jersey having a COVID-19 outbreak among employees. The bar industry in the state has been shut down since and is not part of the governor’s current cap lifting plan.
“Just because we are able to take these steps to deliberately and responsibly reopen more of our economy and business community does not mean that this pandemic is over. Not by a longshot. I just extended, in fact, the public health emergency because it is not over because of this basic reality,” Murphy said. “We must remain vigilant and we must remain smart. There is no excuse. For any — I’ll use a word we haven’t used in a while here, for any knucklehead behavior — and as we have in the past, we will not hesitate to shut down anyone crossing the line and putting the health and safety of their patrons and communities at risk. Again, the overwhelming amount of folks out there by the millions have done and continue to do the right thing.”