New Jersey set to open hair salons, in-store retail, and outdoor dining this month
Photo of Asbury Park commercial district by Acroterion via Wikimedia Commons
In his press conference yesterday, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy announced that his state was looking to enter stage two of its reopening on Monday, June 15. On this date, outdoor dining and limited in-store retail would begin, with hair salons and barbershops following on the 22nd and youth summer programs in early July. This second stage would also phase in museums and libraries, as well as limited capacity at gyms and in-person government services such as motor vehicles.
New Jersey began its reopening on Monday, May 18, at which time the state allowed the restart of non-essential construction, non-essential retail stores to reopen for curbside pickup only, and drive-through and drive-in events to operate under social distancing guidelines. And as of May 22, ahead of the Memorial Day weekend, beaches and boardwalks were permitted to open with capacity limits and social distancing measures in place. Last Friday, the governor announced that day care centers can reopen on June 15 and non-contact organized sports can resume on June 22.
STAGE 2:
6/15
?️Outdoor dining
?️Limited in-person retail6/22
?Hair salons and barber shops7/6
☀️Youth summer programsPhasing in
?In-person clinical research/labs
?Limited fitness/gyms
?️Limited in-person government services
?Museums/librarieshttps://t.co/ZUmUqzdkQc pic.twitter.com/4NWTrjpBoA— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) June 1, 2020
The governor said he will be releasing more details about the protocols for the businesses involved in stage two later this week. He has not yet given any dates or additional information about those entities like gyms and museums that maybe phased in at a later time. As NorthJersey.com says, the governor was vague when asked about these details yesterday:
If you could give us a little bit of a break in terms of specifics of some of this until we have that guidance. It’s going to look a lot like the guidance for essential retail. So it’s going to be capacity, social distancing, markers on the ground, maybe some Plexiglas stuff, and I would think restaurants, outdoor dining will have some of the elements we’ve spoken to — distance between tables, probably temperature checks or something like that on the way in. Masks, gloves of employees. My guess is more paper menus than not, but that’s to come.
Graphic courtesy of Governor Murphy’s office
Murphy noted that all those who can continue to work from home should. “We will not flick a switch,” he said during his press conference yesterday, emphasizing the phased reopening. “Just because the calendar says June 15 doesn’t mean that everyone should just go back to what they were doing pre-COVID. Let’s use common sense for the common good. Only a successful Stage 2 can get us to Stage 3,” he added in a Tweet.
As of yesterday, New Jersey had 160,918 confirmed COVID cases and 11,721 deaths. The state now has the ability to conduct 20,000 tests per day.
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