What you should know
- New Jersey hit a record for COVID-19 cases in a single day twice in the past four days; certain counties have been hit harder than others.
- Essex County reported more confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other in the state; infections continue to increase unabated.
- The mayors of Newark, East Orange, Orange and Irvington agreed to impose a non-essential 24-hour business curfew if the numbers continue to rise; the governor’s office says they will need state permission before taking this into effect.
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NEW JERSEY – The mayors of four New Jersey cities in Essex County, which has been hardest hit by the pandemic in the state, have agreed to impose a 24-hour curfew on all non-essential businesses if COVID- 19 continue to increase. If that measure and other recent mitigation efforts fail, they are prepared to impose a three-day shutdown order, one of the officials told our sister network NBC 4.
The cities involved are Newark, Orange, East Orange, and Irvington, all of which have seen an increase in COVID-19 positivity rates, well above the state average that has already been on the rise in recent weeks. Essex County has more confirmed COVID-19 cases (30,780) than any other county in New Jersey and has been adding hundreds more each day, most recently 355 on Tuesday, state data shows.
“If the numbers continue to rise, we are going to ask the community to close for 24 hours,” East Orange Mayor Ted Green told News 4, adding that he and the other three mayors agreed to a curfew at a Zoom meeting a day before. “We will have to stop the opening of the stores. We will have to stop the opening of the beauty salons. And if the numbers go up again, we will close for 72 hours.”
A spokesman for Governor Phil Murphy’s office says mayors would need permission from the state before enacting any of those curfews. It was not immediately clear if any of the Essex County mayors involved had sought that as of Tuesday.
In addition to the majority of cases, Essex has also confirmed the highest number of deaths of all New Jersey counties since the pandemic began. East Orange ranks second in Essex County in terms of cases and deaths behind Newark.
East Orange Mayor Ted R. Green did not offer a particular threshold that would trigger a non-essential 24-hour business shutdown, but says city officials are closely monitoring daily data.
Amid the latest increase, the four mayors in question have imposed new local rules over the past month, even before New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced a series of new state restrictions over the past two weeks. The most recent of these, a 10-person limit for indoor gatherings, went into effect Tuesday. Newark had already done it. And Essex’s four mayors have ordered restaurants and bars to close at 8:00 pm, before 10:00 pm of the state curfew.
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has been at the forefront of those local efforts. Early last week, it imposed a mandatory curfew schedule from 9:00 p.m. on weekdays, and from 10:00 p.m. on the weekend, non-emergency or nonessential work in certain areas of three high-risk zip codes, a move similar to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s micro-clustering strategy in New York.
Baraka limited indoor and outdoor gatherings to 10 people, stopped all sports in the city for two weeks, and banned visits to long-term care facilities for the same time period. It also imposed new mask use restrictions, capacity restrictions and temperature control requirements for religious services, and banned restaurants from accepting reservations for more than 10 people.
Baraka said last week that he would reassess the situation after December 1 to determine next steps. He told our sister network NBC 4 that there are signs of improving compliance, which is encouraging. But the situation for the state and the United States has only become more urgent since the new local rules were enacted. And the holiday season that worries experts is fast approaching.
In the past five days, New Jersey twice hit its own record for positive COVID-19 cases in a single day. The state’s positivity rate has skyrocketed well above 9%. All but six of the state’s 21 counties reported more than 100 new cases overnight, state data showed Tuesday. An equal number of counties, including Essex, reported more than 300. Hospitalizations are at their highest levels since the end of May. Murphy reported 38 new deaths Tuesday, the highest daily figure since May 21.
In his briefing the day before, Murphy warned that the numbers would continue to worsen with the threat of vacation travel and the arrival of the cold.
“This is consuming us, it is going to get worse,” he said. “We have to leave other options on the table.”
The state has dispatched teams to the hot spots to help the hardest hit cities with tests, messages and other strategies. But if current trends take a turn for the worse, the mayors of Newark, East Orange, Orange and Irvington don’t want to wait for possible new state action from Murphy’s office. They intend to take their own.
While some business owners may be reluctant to the ongoing shocks, Mayor Green says he feels they know it could get even worse if stricter action isn’t taken now.
“We are very afraid that these numbers will skyrocket if we don’t do things right” with the holidays coming up, Green said. “It’s tough love. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t. But I can tell you that if these numbers go up here in the city of East Orange, I’m going to shut things down. I’m the mayor, and I have to make sure my top priority is making sure. that my people are safe and healthy. “
“They can get mad at me later, but I have to do what I have to do,” he added. “They trusted me enough to lead this city. They came to trust me enough that they had to do everything they could to keep people safe.”
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