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New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the state's beaches along the Jersey Shore will reopen in time for Memorial Day weekend, with social distancing restrictions in place to prevent a resurgence of coronavirus cases.
"The Shore is central to our Jersey identity and we want to ensure that families can safely enjoy it this summer," Murphy said Tuesday.
Murphy said there will be lines of demarcation indicating 6 feet of separation between people and there will be overall capacity and admission limits at the beach. He encouraged local officials to regulate beach capacities using beach tags or geographical spatial analysis in certain regions.
Playgrounds, rides, arcades, games, water fountains, picnic areas and water play equipment will remain closed, Murphy added.
"It is fabulous news. I can’t tell you how excited we are to open our beaches," Sea Isle City Mayor Leonard Desiderio said during the governor's daily coronavirus briefing. He said his town plans to hold a test reopening of beaches Saturday to experiment with controlling occupancy limits.
“Our job has been to bring as many people to the beach as we can,” Desiderio said. “Now we have to practice crowd management.”
Food vendors along the boardwalk and street restaurants will be takeaway and delivery only, and retailers will also have to deliver their goods, he added.
Murphy said that while not specifically mandated, "we highly recommend that you wear a face covering, particularly when social distancing is difficult to maintain, such as waiting in line for a slice of boardwalk pizza."
He also said large families who want to stay together at the beach should also wear masks.
The move follows weeks behind other states in the country that have opened up their beaches as a step toward a return to normalcy.
Murphy has taken a cautious approach to reopening the economy, given that the state was the second hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. -- but the governor could be feeling the mounting pressure from the crippling $3.5 billion loss of revenue across the state due to the virus.
Murphy said revenues were down 60 percent in April compared to last year. Just a day before, he eased some restrictions on retailers and construction operations in the state, allowing them to get back to work in a limited capacity.
Still, Murphy reported more than 1,216 new cases of coronavirus and 244 new deaths. In total, New Jersey has lost 9,946 people to COVID-19 and 142,704 people have been infected.
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"We are not out of the woods yet," Murphy said. "We can make the cast that, at this moment in time, we’re the most-impacted state in the region. This is why we need to keep up with social distancing, even as we begin our restart and recovery."
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