A pair of Paterson speakeasies shuttered over the weekend for ignoring rules to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus by operating as clubs and selling alcohol after a statewide curfew drew fierce criticism of Gov. Phil Murphy on Monday.
“You may think this game of cat-and-mouse ... is kind of cute, but let’s be honest, it can be deadly,” Murphy said Monday during his regular COVID-19 briefing.
“And, by the way, when you act like a knucklehead, you show your true self. You show you don’t care about your community. You show you don’t care about your customers or your employees. You prove you only care about yourself,” he said. “To those of you who still think you can make up your own rules, I have an unwelcome reality for you — we will shut you down.”
Murphy praised law enforcement for cracking down on the clubs that he said ignored rules prohibiting bars and restaurants from serving food or alcohol indoors after 10 p.m.
One of the gatherings was held at Akimekedo Restaurant at 405 Main Street. The other is described as a storefront at 106 Park Ave., according to the governor’s office.
Murphy said too many “restaurants were morphing, as the night went on, ... into clubs” when he announced the new restrictions. Health officials were able to trace outbreaks to bars, Murphy said at the time.
Murphy added: “Yes, we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel — that is for sure. But the only thing that is going to get us there as one is all of us pulling together for a couple more months.”
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It was the second time in as many weeks that the governor called out a bar or restaurant for flouting COVID-19 rules.
Last week, he criticized an Oakland restaurant, Portobello, after a Facebook photo of patrons packed in its outdoor bar area the night before Thanksgiving was shared dozens of times on social media.
The governor announced another 3,573 new cases and 17 additional deaths on Monday as hospitalizations increased to the highest number of patients in nearly seven months.
The state’s seven-day average for new positive tests increased to 4,940, the highest since the start of the outbreak, though the lack of testing capacity in the spring likely undercounted the extent of the early infections. The seven-day average for daily cases has increased 23% in the last week and is up 131% since last month.
Earlier on Monday, Murphy said the upcoming days will be “quite telling” whether or not New Jersey will face a surge in new cases tied to Thanksgiving gatherings.
It’s been nearly a dozen days since the holiday, but incubation periods coupled with the two to three days it takes to get tested and then receive those results means any Thanksgiving outbreak clusters would now start to appear.
“I think this week will be quite telling,” Murphy said during an interview on 1010 WINS.
“Anecdotally, people did the right thing at Thanksgiving,” he said. “But we’re going to see whether or not the anecdotal evidence translates into the empirical evidence over the next number of days.”
New restrictions to try and slow the spread of the virus also take effect Monday morning. The latest is the limit on the number of people who can gather outdoors has dropped from 150 people to 25, though there are several exemptions, including religious or political activities, as well as for funerals, memorial services and wedding ceremonies.
On Saturday, all indoor organized sports at the youth, high school, and adult recreational levels were suspended for at least four weeks. The ban applies to both games and practices and lasts until at least Jan. 2.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.