Murphy vows tougher measures against gatherings as coronavirus count nears 2,000

Gov. Phil Murphy on Sunday vowed stricter enforcement of his edict against public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic as the number of confirmed cases in New Jersey is fast approaching 2,000.

Confronted with anecdotes about students still attending and living in a religious school in Lakewood and some nonessential stores remaining open, Murphy said that when he hears such stories, "we are really damned unhappy and we're going to take action."

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"We are not happy with people out there ignoring what is a clear, unmistakable order to stay at home," the governor said during his daily coronavirus briefing.

Murphy did not specify how enforcement would be ramped up, but his statement during the conference call with reporters came one day after he imposed tighter restrictions on public gatherings in New Jersey.

Murphy, who had previously restricted gatherings to 50 people, said his Saturday executive order "actually dropped it to zero" and that state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal would weigh in on the situation during Monday's briefing.

Earlier Sunday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered New York City to come up with a plan to reduce the number of people gathering in public spaces within 24 hours. Cuomo said he saw people gathered in large groups and playing recreational sports during a tour of public places in the city on Saturday. He said such activity is "insensitive, it's arrogant, it's self-destructive, it's disrespectful to other people and it has to stop and it has to stop now,"

New Jersey now has 1,914 confirmed cases of Covid-19, an increase of 590 from Saturday. Four more deaths were reported, bringing the statewide total to 20. The four deaths announced Sunday were all of people over the age of 70, two of whom had underlying medical conditions, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said.

"This is not a surprise. We knew especially as we opened up testing that we would have bigger numbers," Murphy said. The state last week opened a drive-thru testing site in Bergen County and plans to open another site at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on Monday. Union County is also planning to open a drive-thru site at Kean University.

Murphy, who with the governors of New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have requested a total of $100 billion in aid from the federal government, said New Jersey's share "could be as much as" $20 billion. That's almost half of New Jersey's current-year budget.

The governor also said his administration is hearing increased concerns from the state's Asian American community about racism.

"To be clear, this repugnant and repulsive behavior is wrong even in good times, but it is even more repugnant and repulsive now," Murphy said.

Murphy also said an executive order in Newark that Mayor Ras Baraka signedSaturday to put "more strict" conditions on three neighborhoods in the city does not violate his own executive order that bars county and municipal governments from instituting measures above and beyond what the state has done.

Murphy said that while Baraka may have "put more of an underlined emphasis" on those neighborhoods, his action "was completely consistent with our executive order." In a press release Sunday, Baraka said "we are adhering to Governor Murphy's directives throughout the City of Newark, but in the specific areas, we need to go further."

Also during Sunday's briefing, Persichilli urged residents to donate blood, and clarified remarks she made to NJ Advace Media over the weekend that "I'm definitely going to get" Covid-19.

"To clarify my comments, all of us are at risk of getting Covid-19 if we do not practice aggressive social distancing, respiratory etiquette and washing throughout the day and covering our coughs and sneezes," Persichilli said.

The health commissioner also said the state is centralizing the "procurement, inventorying and distribution" of personal protection equipment supplies around the state.

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