Gov. Phil Murphy called on the federal government to require mask wearing as cases in New Jersey start to climb from residents returning from current coronavirus hot spots.
“It’s become almost not even debatable,” Murphy said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “If you’re leaving your house, put on a mask. I think it ought to be a national, a national requirement.“
New Jersey only now is reopening its economy while requiring people to wear masks when they shop in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
“This thing is lethal. New Jersey’s paid an enormous price,” Murphy said. “We went through hell. We cannot go through hell again. We need a national strategy right now and masking has to be at the core of that.”
Other states, which reopened for business more quickly and did not demand that residents and visitors wear masks, are now seeing the same jump in coronavirus cases that New Jersey did at the start of the pandemic.
“We’re starting to see small spikes in reinfection from folks coming back from places like Myrtle Beach, as well as in Florida, other hot spots,” Murphy said, specifically attributing some cases to a Myrtle Beach wedding attended by New Jerseyans. “To me it says we need a national strategy. We’re only as strong as our weakest link right now.”
Murphy already has delayed plans to reopen indoor dining because residents have not been wearing masks or practicing social distancing at outdoor bars and restaurants.
“We have nothing but sympathy for them,” Murphy said. “But the choice is either we open inside and, or based on the data that we saw, and as I said, the lethality of this virus inside, or we lose people. We literally lose lives.”
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
The state on Sunday reported 173,033 known cases, with 15,189 deaths. Once the nation’s second biggest hot spot behind only New York, New Jersey is now fifth as California, Texas and Florida have surged past the Garden State.
President Donald Trump, who has urged states to reopen their economies, has eschewed masks. Most of the thousands of people who attended his speech Friday at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota went maskless, the Argus-Leader of Sioux Falls reported.
Trump on Saturday continued to defend his handling of the coronavirus.
“We’ve made a lot of progress; our strategy is moving along well,” the president said at the White House during the July 4 celebration. “It goes out in one area, and rears back its ugly face in another area. But we’ve learned a lot. We’ve learned how to put out the flame.”
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Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.
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‘We cannot go through hell again,’ Murphy says in calling for national mask rule to fight coronavirus - NJ.com
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