New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has announced an extension of its public health emergency another 30 days amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
"I want to make it absolutely clear that this action does not mean that we are seeing anything in the data which would pause our path forward, and it should not be interpreted by anyone to mean we are going to be tightening any of the restrictions currently in place," Murphy told reporters at his daily press briefing.
Murphy's order extends through June 6 at least, but he did report a "leveling" in the infection rate in his state, the second worst in the U.S., having 131,890 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 8,244 deaths to date.
Murphy tweeted:
"LOOK: We continue to see the daily counts of new cases leveling, even as more testing sites continue to come online. The rate of positivity among those who are tested also continues to decrease."
He added in an ensuing tweet:
"If this extension signals one thing, it is this – we can’t give up one bit on the one thing that we know is working in this fight: social distancing. Remember, in the absence of a vaccine, or even proven therapeutics for #COVID19, our only cure is social distancing."
Despite the high rate of infections in the state, New Jersey has been under lockdown orders for seven weeks.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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