New Jersey’s Boat Charters Are Back As Virus Conditions Improve
Boat Charters Return to New Jersey in New Step to Reboot Economy
(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey’s fishing charters and other watercraft rentals resumed on Sunday, with social distancing measures in place, as conditions related to the state’s coronavirus pandemic continued to improve.
The state reported another 1,272 Covid-19 cases on Sunday, for a total of 146,334. Deaths rose by 107 to 10,356. On both measures, New Jersey is second only to New York, among U.S. states.
Hospitalized coronavirus patients by Saturday night were 3,411, down 58% from the peak reported on April 14 and the lowest since the state started publicly reporting the figures in early April.
Some 819 patients were intubated and 1,030 in intensive care, both the lowest in six weeks.
Governor Phil Murphy announced the relaxation of restrictions on watercraft on Saturday. It followed a vow on Thursday that New Jersey’s beaches will be open for next week’s Memorial Day holiday, the unofficial start to summer in the U.S.
Murphy has vowed “deliberate incremental steps” to bring the state’s economy back from a shelter-in-place order designed to slow the spread of coronavirus.
“The data says that it is possible” even as the blanket stay-at-home order imposed on March 21 mostly stays in place, he said on Saturday.
Murphy said Saturday he’d outline within days the medical and other markers he’ll be assessing toward lifting the stay-at-home order. A patchwork of activities are now permitted in the Garden State: golf, for example, but not tennis.
“While we know we are not entirely out of the woods yet, New Jersey is beginning to fall a little bit more in line with some of the big states and neighbors we compare ourselves too,” he said.
Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. exceed 89,000 and cases are over 1.47 million.
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