Governor Phil Murphy’s oppressive COVID-19 capacity regulations will mostly end on May 19th, though many social distancing regulations (including indoor mask wearing) will remain in effect. There are naturally some big “buts” attached to it.
The move is being sold as bringing New Jersey in line with Connecticut and, as of Monday morning, the neighboring State of New York. One again, Murphy is copying Lamont (D-CT) and Cuomo (D-NY). Sometimes that’s good news. Other times? 8,000+ nursing home patients die. Flip a coin.
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There won’t be any outdoor limit at all going forward BUT a 6-feet distancing requirement will remain which means capacity for some restaurants will still exist albeit relaxed.
The 8-person table rule and prohibition on bar seating will also go away.
The capacity restriction elimination is a long-overdue mercy for crippled restaurants, gyms, and similar retail establishments heading into Memorial Day Weekend, but strict social distancing rules will remain in effect even where 100% capacity is possible. “Possible” is the key word since social distancing rules will prevent some venues – like theaters and sports arenas – from functionally reaching 100% capacity for now. You’re also going to need to get very creative if you’re a – for example – small Italian restaurant since you need to continue spacing out the tables.
So for all of the good press this is going to get, Murphy’s announcement stops short of the full-reopening announced in many red states and even some blue ones, too, in recent weeks and months. There’s also no indication that his public health emergency declaration is going away anytime soon.
Murphy’s capacity restrictions initially began in March 2020 with a statewide shutdown of “nonessential” businesses. While he’s tweaked those regulations over time and rarely provided a clear data-based rationale for his decisions, the end result was easy to quantify: one-third of New Jersey’s small businesses closed forever in 2020 and a seemingly never-ending unemployment benefit backlog persists.
Electoral politics is now helping drive events in increasingly obvious ways. Facing a reelection campaign this year, Murphy had refused to set reopening dates as recently as last week despite a fast-dropping rate of transmission and “positive” caseload. New York City’s decision to set a hard July 1st reopening date is likely to have helped force Murphy’s hand since the Garden State was increasingly a partial lockdown outlier.
Developing…
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