New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy (D) echoed the sentiments of governors across the nation and told CNBC that, “we’re just pleading with people to do the right thing” as the coronavirus pandemic infects, hospitalizes and kills more people than ever before.
“We’ve got the holidays before us, and we are pleading with people to not let their guard down, to stay strong,” said Murphy in a Thursday evening interview on “The News with Shepard Smith.” “This virus is dying for us, literally, to let our guard down. We’ve got to do everything we can to push back at that.”
Today, the CDC urged Americans not to travel for Thanksgiving and advised people to limit gatherings to those within the same household. Democrat and Republican governors from seven states wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post that called on Americans to stay home for Thanksgiving. Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was one of the authors, and he asked residents to take a “pause” on social activities including in-person dining, sports and gyms for the next four weeks.
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced a “limited” stay-at-home order and curfew across most of the state. The orders come as Los Angeles County reported an all-time-high of 5,000 new Covid-19 cases. Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced a “two-week pause” that will take effect from Nov. 30 through at least Dec.13.
In New Jersey more than 2,400 people are hospitalized with coronavirus, the most since June. The positivity rate is 9.4%. Gov. Murphy told host Shepard Smith that his state has limited indoor gathering to 10 people at most and outdoor gatherings to 150 people. New Jersey has also stopped indoor service of bars and restaurants from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
“We’ve upped our compliance, but there’s no amount of compliance enforcement, no amount of law enforcement that can get inside of everybody’s living rooms,” Murphy said.
Gov. Murphy said that he is convinced that the new vaccine developments are real, safe and effective, but he did note that the Garden State will have its own separate process to approve any Covid-19 vaccine.
“We’ll put our ‘Good Housekeeping’ seal of approval on it, if we don’t then that means we don’t think it will be safe and workable,” Murphy said. “I have to tell you right now, I strongly believe it will be.”