Gov. Murphy says NJ is 'close' to introducing COVID-19 restrictions amid statewide spike

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TRENTON - Citing a sustained surge in coronavirus cases, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy told on Thursday reporters that the state is 'close' to introducing new pandemic restrictions.

The first-term democrat did not divulge what the restrictions might look like during an afternoon press conference in Trenton, but acknowledged that more than half of the state's counties are reporting over 100 new cases.

"We will clearly be taking action, and I hope it will be action that balances all the various challenges and interests that we have," Murphy said.

On Thursday, New Jersey reported over 2,000 new cases of COVID-19 for the second consecutive day bringing the statewide number of infections to 247,219. The daily positivity rate, which sat in between 1% and 3% in August, climbed over 7.5% while the rate of transmission held fairly steady at 1.26.

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Meanwhile, 12 virus-related fatalities pushed the state's death toll to 14,603. Murphy said the state continues to see an uptick in hospitalizations with 1,224, but state data says patients on ventilators and in critical care have remained mostly level.

Despite the statewide surge, Murphy credited Judy Persichilli with her work in stamping out COVID-19 hot spots, and emphasized the importance of the state's contact tracing program.

"Right now we've had really good success with the hot spot teams and Judy has lead it," Murphy said. "Just because it's up everywhere doesn't mean that that isn't effective."

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New Jersey was among the hardest-hit states by the coronavirus pandemic from March into the springtime. The state extended some of the nation's most restrictive shutdown orders aimed at slowing the spread of the pandemic that has now claimed 234K American lives.

New Jersey rebounded in the summertime, and even saw back-to-back days with cases counts below 200 in June. But as many experts have forewarned, the changing season is likely to manifest another wave of coronavirus infections.