Thanks to Holly Weise, we have a selection of photographs of life in Pennington in 2020 during the New Jersey COVID shutdown.
These images illustrate the impact of the shutdown on individuals, neighborhoods, organizations, and small businesses. They include shut down signs for businesses and churches (but with the food pantry still operating), stores open only for take-out, informal group get-togethers with social distancing, and neighborhood thank you signs for healthcare workers and teachers. Plus – there’s a COVID bingo card and the ubiquitous cow statue wearing a mask.
== View all the Pennington COVID Images in the Image Gallery ==
The New Jersey COVID shutdown began on March 9, 2020, when Governor Murphy declared a state of emergency. Schools began closing and switching to online classes, and public facilities including gyms and movie theaters were closed. Restaurants could remain open only for delivery and takeout. Then on March 21 came a statewide stay-at-home order, requiring that all non-essential businesses be closed indefinitely.
Two years later, most of the restrictions had been lifted by the time that Governor Murphy ended the public health emergency on March, 7 2022.
See Wikipedia for more on the New Jersey COVID shutdown – which is summarized below with a historical timeline.
New Jersey COVID Shutdown – 2020
The New Jersey COVID-19 shutdown began on March 9, 2020, when Governor Murphy declared a state of emergency, and schools began closing and switching to online classes.
On March 16 a statewide curfew was ordered, closing casinos, gyms, and movie theaters. Restaurants and bars were only allowed to remain open for delivery and takeout. Gatherings of 50 or more people were prohibited, with a statewide curfew of 8 p.m. All of the state’s schools, colleges, and universities were ordered to close indefinitely. All personal care businesses that could not maintain proper social distancing were ordered to close, including barbershops, hair salons, nail salons, and spas. Upcoming local and school board elections were postponed until May, with voting by mail. Then on March 21 came a statewide stay-at-home order, requiring that all non-essential businesses be closed indefinitely.
On March 31, the state directed that admission to nursing homes and post-acute care facilities could not be denied on the basis of the COVID status of a patient, and prohibited requiring testing prior to admission.
In early April, all state parks, state forests, and county parks were closed. Shore towns announced that they were closing their beaches. All employees and shoppers at open businesses were required to wear face coverings, and workers needed to wear gloves while interacting with customers. The number of customers inside stores was limited to a maximum of 50% capacity. Face coverings were also required when getting takeout inside restaurants and bars. All non-essential construction was banned, and primary elections were postponed to July. NJ Transit trains and buses were reduced to 50% capacity, and employees and riders were required to wear face coverings.
Over the following months, the stay-at-home order was gradually lifted, however other restrictions including social distancing, capacity limits, and face masks remained in place for some time.
On May 18, the governor unveiled a three-stage reopening strategy. In the second half of May, public and private beaches were reopened under social distancing, elective surgeries and invasive procedures could resume, charter fishing and watercraft rental businesses were reopened, and some additional outdoor recreational areas and businesses were allowed. In-person sales were permitted to resume. Outdoor gatherings were limited to 25 individuals, and indoor gatherings to 10 people.
On June 1, the governor announced stage two of reopening. The stay-at-home-order was lifted and the limits on indoor and outdoor gatherings were increased. Child care centers, non-contact organized sports, and youth day camps were reopened, along with outdoor dining and limited in-person retail, and hair salons and barber shops. Phased reopening was permitted for in-person clinical research/labs, limited fitness/gyms, limited in-person government services, and museums/libraries. State Motor Vehicle Commission locations also were reopened. At the end of June, shopping malls and municipal and private-club pools were permitted to reopen.
Also in June, the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut announced that that anybody arriving from states with high rates of coronavirus would have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine. The list of restricted states grew to 19 by early July.
In July, the limit on outdoor gatherings was increased to 500 people. Graduation ceremonies were allowed to be held outdoors, with social distancing. Professional sports teams could return to training or even competition as decided by the leagues. Casinos, outdoor playgrounds, outdoor amusement parks, outdoor water parks, indoor pools, museums, libraries, aquariums, and indoor recreational facilities could reopen at limited capacity. Gyms and fitness centers could reopen their outdoor spaces and offer limited individualized indoor instruction by appointment only. Youth summer programs also were reopened.
On August 4, the maximum size of indoor gatherings was reduced from 100 to 25 individuals.
In early September, indoor dining was permitted to resume at 25% capacity.
On October 26, the New Jersey public health emergency was extended.
On December 15, the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in New Jersey were issued to healthcare workers. On December 18, the state announced plans to open six COVID-19 vaccine “mega-sites” across the state in January, in addition to making the vaccine available at more than 200 satellite locations.
New Jersey COVID Shutdown – 2021
In 2021, New Jersey continued to slowly relax the restrictions imposed during the shutdown. In February 2021, indoor dining at restaurants, gyms, and casinos was permitted to increase capacity from 25% to 35%, and the statewide restriction that restaurants close at 10 p.m. for indoor dining was lifted.
In March, indoor sites were allowed to increase capacity from 35% to 50%, and outdoor gatherings from 25 to 50 people.
In May, the outdoor mask mandate in public spaces was lifted, while the indoor mask mandate still remained in place. The capacity limit for indoor events was increased to 50%, with a maximum of 250 people, including restaurants, gyms, salons, indoor recreational activities, proms, weddings and performances. Indoor bar seating was allowed and the prohibition on buffets and self-service foods was lifted. Capacity limits at indoor establishments required operating with 6 feet of social distancing, including restaurants, retail stores, gyms, and religious establishments. Indoor gatherings for house parties and social events were increased to 50 people, and catered events, funerals, performances, and political activities were increased to a maximum of 250 people with social distancing. Indoor sporting events and concerts were allowed to operate at 30% capacity, and capacity limits were removed for outdoor gatherings while still requiring social distancing.
At the end of May, New Jersey lifted social distancing requirements in indoor and outdoor settings along with the indoor mask mandate for vaccinated people. Masks were still required in public-facing state offices, worksites closed to the public, healthcare facilities, prisons, homeless shelters, transportation facilities, childcare facilities, summer camps, and schools.
In August, the governor announced that all students, teachers, staff and visitors in K-12 schools were required to wear masks for the 2021–2022 school year. All Pre K-12 teachers and other school staff at all public and private were required to be vaccinated or be tested for COVID at least once or twice a week.
New Jersey COVID Shutdown – 2022
On March 7, 2022, Governor Murphy lifted the New Jersey COVID-19 public health emergency, and the statewide mask mandate for schools and state workers ended.
In April, NJ Transit stopped requiring masks after a federal judge overturned the 2021 federal requirement that people wear masks on public transport.
The statewide restrictions caused many business closings and layoffs. By April 23, 2020, or five weeks after aggressive social distancing began, more than 858,000 New Jersey workers had filed for unemployment benefits. By April 30, 930,000 residents had filed for unemployment benefits in the previous six weeks, up from 55,000 for the same time period in 2019. According to a Monmouth University poll released on the 27th, at least one person was out of work because of the COVID pandemic in more than 40% of households in the state.
See also the New Jersey COVID-19 Dashboard
Please contact us if you have additional photos or other materials to document the impact of COVID on our local community.
