Outdoor dining, salons, barbershops to open later this month in New Jersey

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (Edwin J. Torres/Governor's Office)

TRENTON, N.J. - New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says more businesses will be able to open later this month.

The Democrat said Monday that restaurants can open for outdoor dining on June 15. Barbershops and salons can open on June 22.

Special ruling has been implemented to allow outdoor dining establishments to operate with a little more flexibility in effort to hopefully recoup costs lost during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Restaurants and bars throughout New Jersey have been immensely cooperative with necessary public health measures that were placed upon them while battling the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Governor Phil Murphy.“Allowing outdoor dining and the expansion of alcohol-serving areas will allow restaurants and bars to begin welcoming customers back while continuing to comply with necessary social distancing guidance.”

Subsquently, a special ruling by the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) will temporarily permit establishments with liquor licenses to expand their licensed premises into outdoor areas that are either contiguous or non-contiguous to their permanently licensed premises.

Only those establishments with existing liquor licenses may apply through the POSSE ABC Online Licensing system, and if approved will be issued a temporary permit effective on June 15th that will run until November 14, 2020.

Already parks, golf courses and curbside pickup for retail have reopened. There were 509 new positive cases overnight, putting the statewide total at about 160,000. Murphy says there were 27 deaths over the same period, putting the death toll at 11,721.

On Tuesday, Murphy claimed the average number of people who become infected with coronavirus from another infected person has fallen below one in the state.

The data, called the rate of reproduction, indicates how many people one infected person goes on to infect.

Before Murphy’s stay-home order went into effect in March, the rate was above five.

The governor and the head of the state’s communicable disease service, Dr. Edward Lifshitz, credited public adherence to social distancing guidelines with having brought down the number.