By Claire Drewniak
With the U.S. setting grim milestones and widespread distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine still “months away,” Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday reiterated the need to bear down, saying “knucklehead behavior” won’t be tolerated.
He singled out a Bergen County restaurant cited on Thanksgiving Eve for a packed bar, a violation of his executive order that resulted in the place being emptied and a permit restriction slapped on the operators .
“Outlier owners who think the rules apply to others but not to them, and who don’t support the values of their communities, give the good and hard-working restaurateurs…a black eye,” Murphy said during a press briefing in Trenton.
Portobello in Oakland must close at 4 pm for the next month.
Murphy spoke on a day when the United States set a single-day record for COVID fatalities–at least 2,760–and surpassed 100,000 coronavirus hospitalizations for the first time, reported the New York Times.
Nationally, the death toll is 272,552, and globally, 1,488,513, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The virus has killed 15,309 New Jersey residents since March; 869 of them were from Morris County.
IN-SCHOOL TRANSMISSIONS…AND A NON-COVID TRAGEDY
COVID continues spreading in the Garden State, which reported a transmission rate of 1.11 on Wednesday. Anything above 1.0 indicates infections are rising. Some 4,350 new cases were reported statewide.
Four in-school outbreaks have been confirmed over the past week, leading to 16 new cases of coronavirus infection. Since the start of the school year, 285 cases of in-school transmission have been linked to 70 outbreaks, said the governor, who discouraged all non-essential out-of-state travel in an advisory on Twitter.
Since Thanksgiving, Morris County has reported 182 new cases. Morristown has a total of 1,004 cases, an increase of 75 since then. For Morris Township, there have been 27 new cases, totaling 552, and for Morris Plains, 13 new cases, totaling 168.
A non-COVID death also brought sadness.
State Police Superintendent Col. Pat Callahan said his agency is investigating the death of 27-year-old Boonton resident Lucas Homejier, a recruit who died on Tuesday from injuries sustained on Nov. 25 during training at the New State Police Academy in Sea Girt.
He was boxing with a classmate when he lost consciousness, according to news reports.
“Our hearts go out to the Homeijer family and the entire community of Boonton on the tragic loss of Lucas Homeijer,” the Morris County Freeholders said in a statement Wednesday.
“The passing of this young, vibrant State Police recruit is deeply saddening as well as untimely. To his parents, Don and Denise, we mourn with you. To the family and all of Boonton, you are all in our prayers.”
