By: Michael Mandarino, Follow South Jersey Managing Editor
TRENTON, N.J. — Over the past year, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has regularly held COVID-19 briefings to keep the community informed about the state’s plans and actions pertinent to the pandemic. The governor said that he’ll make a “major” announcement about the state’s reopening efforts during his briefing on Monday afternoon.
The briefing will begin at 1 p.m. today, and you’ll be able to watch it on Gov. Murphy’s official social media platforms.
“As our key metrics improve and our vaccination progress continues, we’re ready to move forward,” Gov. Murphy said on Twitter.
New Jersey last loosened its COVID-19-related restrictions in late March, which is when the state’s outdoor gathering limit and large venue capacity were expanded to 200 people, 20% capacity for indoor large venues, and 30% capacity for outdoor large venues, respectively. Additionally, restaurants and other indoor businesses were allowed to expand their indoor capacity to 50% on March 19.
On March 24, Gov. Murphy said during an interview on CNN that New Jersey’s COVID-19-related restrictions wouldn’t be expanded “for some time” due to new variants of the virus. However, his loosening of restrictions in late March represented his apparent change of mind after that interview. Gov. Murphy has also said that this summer should look “much more normal” than last year’s as the state’s vaccination efforts continue.
“Last summer got reasonably normal, but I’ll tell you — assuming we can keep these variants under control and we all continue to do the right thing, I think we’re going to be able to gradually open this place up,” Gov. Murphy said during an interview on News 12 New Jersey. “I know millions will be vaccinated. I’m looking forward to Memorial Day.”
As of Monday morning, New Jersey had administered a total of 6,661,861 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine models, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard. More than four million New Jersey residents have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine models, and 2,819,226 people have been fully inoculated against the pandemic after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna models (or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson model).
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