As Ocean County — and Lakewood Township in particular — continues to see an alarming uptick in coronavirus cases, Gov. Phil Murphy said Friday that New Jersey is not considering shutting down the area or forcing all residents to quarantine.
Meanwhile, Murphy and state officials are walking a delicate line as they continue to preach public safety while dealing with a significant outbreak in Lakewood, home to one of the largest and fastest-growing Orthodox Jewish populations on the East Coast. A local leader Friday expressed fear the situation will inspire anti-Semitism toward the area.
Though the state calls on travelers from U.S. states and territories that qualify as coronavirus hotspots to quarantine for 14 days, Murphy said it would be wrong to subject Ocean County to a widespread lockdown order.
“We are all one New Jersey family, and that runs counter to the notion that we’re all in this together,” the governor said during a roundtable discussion with local and religious leaders at Ocean County Airport in Berkeley Township. “Secondly, the practicality of it is beyond real feasibility. And thirdly, there are other steps that we can take and we are taking that we believe will address this.”
Instead, Murphy said the combination of more testing, contact tracing, and public awareness should get the state “to the place we need to get to."
State officials have sent thousands of testing kits, as well as more contact tracers, to the area in recent days. They are setting up a large testing site Monday at FirstEnergy Park, home of the Lakewood BlueClaws minor league baseball team.
“But everybody needs to take this very seriously … not just in this county but everywhere,” Murphy said, noting that it’s not just Lakewood and Ocean County that have seen cases rise recently.
Murphy has often been strict when it comes to COVID-19 in New Jersey, branding people who violate his orders “knuckleheads" and issuing stern warnings that he may need to tighten restrictions if bad behavior and numbers get out of hand.
But the Democratic governor struck a softer tone Friday, as he was surrounded by leaders in Lakewood’s Orthodox community. Murphy insisted there’s “no room for even a speck of blaming that community or this community for what’s going on.”
“I believe with all my heart we can achieve that balance — that we can both be factual about where the hotspots are and what we need to do to drive them to the ground but also defend with 1,000% vigor every single community and their right, as long as it’s responsible, to do things like worship and pursue their faith," he said.
Duvi Honig, founder and CEO of Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, said he’s worried about how Lakewood is being perceived and that the outbreak there is at risk of being misrepresented and could lead to antisemitism.
“When we have increased testing, our numbers are higher,” Honig said. “But we’re doing increased testing to stay safe, not to show the media and be misrepresented that our numbers are much higher. It can increase the challenge of anti-Semitism."
Honig addressed the media directly
”Please cover us, Lakewood, fairly, because we want to do the testing and we want people to come out," he said. “And I feel hesitation from our leadership coming to us saying, ‘Duvi, we want to do the testing, but we’re afraid it’s a trick to be flagged as bigger numbers and then have repercussions.’”
Murphy responded with support.
“We’re with you 1,000%,” the governor said. “We cannot allow anyone who has ill intentions to use this as a cover, whether it’s anti-Semitism, whether it’s dividing us. We will accept none of that.”
Despite increases in testing, Ocean still carries a high spot positivity rate. The statewide daily positivity rate — the percentage of tests that come back positive in one day — was 2.4% on Sept. 28. In Ocean County, the positivity rate was just under 16%, while it was 28% in Lakewood alone.
State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said there has not been a “specific event” that has sparked the increases, but she noted religious services during the recent Jewish high holidays has created “close contact.” Another holiday, Sukkot, begins Friday night and runs through Sunday night.
The state health commissioner also said large gatherings like weddings and funerals have contributed.
Ocean County has led the state with the most new cases in 16 of the last 17 days. On Friday, the state reported 190 of the state’s 796 newly reported cases came from the county — more than double the next-highest county, Middlesex, with 72.
Of Ocean’s new cases, 126 came from Lakewood, officials said.
But three other municipalities in the county — Lacey, Stafford, and Jackson — have also seen upticks lately, Persichilli said.
Meanwhile, at least 10 teachers and seven students in Lakewood public schools have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the school year. But “things are going very well” and the district has no plans to have kids start learning remotely from home, the district’s superintendent, Laura Winters, said Friday.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.
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Murphy says N.J. won’t shut down Ocean County over COVID-19. Local official fears anti-Semitic backlash. - NJ.com
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