By Daniel J. Munoz, NJBIZ
Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said Friday he will shut down the state’s largest city the day before Thanksgiving, as the region becomes ground zero for the weeks-long surge of COVID-19.
The 10-day shutdown will begin on Nov. 25, as the city leads New Jersey in new cases and the positivity rate among tests.
“We are, from Wednesday before Thanksgiving to Dec. 4, going to lock the city down,” Baraka said during a Thursday evening radio appearance on WBGO 88.3 FM’s Newark Today.
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“We want people to shelter in place. We only want folks to come out for essential purposes. Do not go outside if you don’t have to. Don’t mingle with other people if you don’t have to. Stay (with) your family in your immediate household.”
The shutdown orders could conflict with the much looser orders that Gov. Phil Murphy signed in a bid to reverse the recent statewide surges.
Although Murphy allowed local governments to shut down non-essential businesses at 8 p.m. – which Newark and other major cities have done – his orders prohibit local town, city and county governments from implementing their own stricter restrictions.
Casinos, malls, sit-down restaurants, non-essential retail, indoor amusement, indoor theaters, many forms of construction, gyms, nail and hair salons all had to shutter their doors in March. As the pandemic worsens, indoor dining and elective surgeries could be in the next round of reinstated restrictions.
The governor cautioned this week against a “patchwork” of potentially conflicting orders that vary from town to town.
But Murphy has been widely hands-off with how Baraka, a major ally of the governor, has handled the city’s response to the pandemic, both in the past month and during the first wave this spring. The mayors of Orange, Irvington and East Orange are considering similar measures.
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