PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Gov. Phil Murphy extended New Jersey's public health emergency this weekend for the eighth time since it was declared in March. This came after a week many felt would include a major announcement regarding indoor dining.
With daily COVID-19 cases just reaching the highest mark in New Jersey since early May, Murphy said he has to make sure the state has access to all available resources. To that effect, he has extended the public health emergency for another 30 days.
With this spike, Murphy said keeping everyone in New Jersey safe is his top priority. Indoor dining remains at 25% capacity for now.
"The numbers of late are sobering," he said. "And one concern I think we are coming to, all of us who are trying to get this as right as we can, is we don't want to send mixed messages in terms of what we are trying to do right now."
That said, Murphy did admit there is no evidence that indoor dining has contributed to the spike. All the same, he said he doesn't want to add capacity only to take it back, something that happened right before July Fourth when he announced the return of indoor dining.
"I don't want to take a step and then have to lurch backward just because there's too much investment, too much planning involved," he said.
However, Murphy did announce something that could help restaurants in the meantime.
"The Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control will be allowing the expanded liquor license permits that we enabled for outdoor dining to be extended from the end of November through the end of March," he declared.
Murphy announced Sunday that New Jersey's total case count rose to 228,468, with 1,140 new positives. Four additional deaths were also reported, bringing the state's death toll to 14,496.
