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UPDATE: The ban on indoor school sports applies to games, practice, organized NJ activities, even adult recreation leagues
Indoor high school, youth and adult recreational sports in New Jersey will be suspended until January under new coronavirus rules. Gov. Phil Murphy will announce on Monday that he also includes a reduced limit on gatherings in outdoors for 25 people, NJ Advance Media learned.
The indoor sports suspension will begin at 6 a.m. on Saturday and will last until January 2, according to two sources who are directly aware of the decision but spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. the question.
The order does not affect college or professional indoor sports, the sources say.
But this will apply to ice hockey, swimming and other indoor sports for youth, high schools and adults. Many high school sports have already been postponed to January.
Despite the new outdoor gathering limit, outdoor sports will still be allowed because the people needed for the matches – athletes, coaches, referees and staff – will not count towards the 25-person limit. But spectators would not be allowed if that number exceeds 25, sources said.
High school football will not be affected as the season ended last weekend.
Murphy is expected to provide further details on the new restrictions during a noon coronavirus briefing in Trenton on Monday.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracking | Bulletin | Home page
The state’s new outdoor gathering limit, down to 150, will take effect at 6 a.m. next Monday, December 7, sources said. This could have implications for a variety of outdoor events planned during the holiday season.
Murphy lowered the outdoor gathering limit from 500 to 150 people thanks to an executive order that went into effect just a week ago. These restrictions included exemptions for outdoor meals, weddings, funerals, and religious and political activities protected by the First Amendment.
The governor also lowered the indoor gathering limit from 25 to 10 earlier this month, ahead of Thanksgiving weekend.
Murphy ordered the suspension of all interstate indoor sports for young people earlier this month and raised specific concerns about ice hockey, which would be included in the new indoor sports ban to be announced. Monday.
The latest restrictions come as coronavirus cases and hospitalizations in New Jersey have increased dramatically in recent weeks after a relative lull this summer.
The seven-day average of new cases in New Jersey on Sunday was 4,070 – an increase of 5.6% from last week and 176% from a month ago, although the rate of increase has slowed in recent days.
Hospitalizations fell around the Thanksgiving holiday after a three-week increase, but remain at their highest level since May 22.
Officials have also warned that if a coronavirus vaccine is on the horizon, the outbreak over the next few months could be difficult as people spend more time indoors, especially during the winter holidays.
Murphy said the state was trying to use more “surgical” restrictions to combat the spread during Wave 2. He also said his goal was to keep as much in-person learning as possible in schools, although many districts have switched to all distant classes before the holidays.
Murphy hasn’t ruled out making another statewide shutdown like he did in the first wave of spring.
“He has to stay on the table,” Murphy said Sunday in an interview with Fox News. “God willing, we don’t have to.”
“The good news is that there is light at the end of the tunnel (with) vaccines in particular, but for the next two or three months we are in the fight of our lives,” he added. .
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Brent Johnson can be reached at [email protected].
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