NJ Extends Health Emergency As Coronavirus 'War-Footing' Remains

NEW JERSEY – Gov. Phil Murphy, speaking during a Wednesday news conference, indicated he isn't quite ready to reopen – but he's closer – as he extended New Jersey's public health emergency for another 30 days, to June 7. He made the announcement as he noted that the number of new cases on Wednesday – 1,513 – and additional deaths– 308 – continued a downward trend in the coronavirus outbreak (you can watch it here, below).

The update comes as the total number of cases rose to 131,390 in New Jersey, and 8,549 have died. Murphy indicated that the extension means that New Jersey's separate stay-at-home order will remain in place, likely for at least another month Read more: NJ Coronavirus Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

Murphy made the announcement as a number of beaches have indicated that they plan to reopen before or on Memorial Day weekend. The governor has indicated that he may allow them to be open, but with restrictions. Read more: Jersey Shore Beaches Plan To Open Amid Coronavirus: Here's Where

Murphy said New Jersey is "seeing good signs but can't lull ourselves into thinking that all is well" even as "we get closer and closer to our restart." The daily number of new cases, which were exceeding 3,000 and 4,000 just 10 days ago, is now often below 2,500, he noted.

At the same time, Murphy said, the extension "does not mean we're going to be tightening any of the restrictions."

"We'll continue on our current war footing for the coming month," Murphy said.

Murphy said the work of restarting the economy continues even as "the conditions underpinning this declaration have not changed."

Murphy said New Jersey still needs to at least double its testing capacity and implement robust contact tracing, as well as develop a system to isolate the sick, before having a complete reopening. The governor echoed what he provided recently in a six-point outline to "restart New Jersey and put the state on the road to recovery." Read more: Gov. Murphy Issues 6-Point NJ Reopen Plan In Coronavirus Crisis

Murphy provided graphs showing how the outbreak continues to be on a downward trend:

The update also comes as New Jersey reported that it may never know exactly how many people have actually died because of the coronavirus. That's because the two explicit resources for that information – the state Department of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – show that the data may have been underreported by significant margins. Read more: NJ Coronavirus: CDC, State Data Suggest Death Count Higher

Watch Murphy here:

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