New Jersey to Toughen Gathering Limits After Cases Reach Record

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy will further restrict indoor and outdoor gatherings after daily cases reached a record over the weekend.

A maximum of 10 people can gather indoors, even in private residences, down from an earlier restriction of 25. The outdoor gatherings limit will drop to 150 from 500.

“There’s a lot of private-setting transmission,” Murphy, a first-term Democrat, said Monday in an MSNBC cable television interview.

Indoor restaurant dining will continue to be limited to 25% of capacity, he said.

New Jersey on Sunday counted a record 4,540 positive results, breaking its single-day record from April, when only symptomatic people were being screened. The state had about 9,000 new cases over the weekend and “it’s going to get worse,” Murphy said.

“If you’re not just going to work and coming home at night, just don’t travel,” Murphy advised on Fox-TV’s “Good Day Philadelphia.”

Murphy, whose extended family typically gathers at his Middletown estate for Thanksgiving, with athletic contests he calls the “Murphy Bowl,” said this year it will be just his wife, Tammy, and four children. “We can’t afford to do anything else,” he said on Fox.

Murphy will disclose details about the new limits at a Trenton news conference today. The indoor cap of 10 “certainly does mean in your private setting,” Murphy said on PIX11 television, although he said that will be difficult to enforce. Authorities who discover large-scale events in commercial spaces, he said, will take steps including pulling liquor licenses and closing operations.

Addressing a false Twitter rumor circulated last week, the governor said he has no plans for widespread school closings. Outbreaks have struck just 52 of more than 3,000 schools, with fewer than 200 cases, he said. The state has about 1.4 million students in kindergarten through 12th grade, with most classes a hybrid of in person and at home.

“Our hope is that we can continue on the path that we’re on and keep the schools open,” Murphy said on PIX-11.

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