Coincidentally, the surge of 2,066 new cases comes just one week after New Jersey had posted its lowest-ever seven day average of just 224 new cases. But despite the previously encouraging figures, the state has publicly struggled to enforce its social distancing mandates and bans on large gatherings, which are currently limited to fewer than 100 people indoors and 500 for outdoor events. RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. On July 25, a party of 700 people that was being held at an Airbnb property in the town of Jackson took five hours for local police to break up, CNN reported. “Come on folks! Come on,” Gov. Phil Murphy said of the gathering during a coronavirus news briefing the following day. “That’s needlessly putting men and women in uniform and their families at risk.” The popular summer community of Long Beach Island was also hit with a surge in cases related to a large gathering when 30 local lifeguards tested positive for COVID-19 after attending an after-work party. The figures reported between the two also uphold the warnings of medical experts that, as in the South, this surge of cases is made up mostly of younger people congregating for summer parties, The New York Times reports.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb The governor’s office responded to the news by pointing out that even with the surge, the state’s daily new reported cases per 100,000 people is still one of the lowest in the nation, and that a lag in testing had been partly to blame for the stark uptick, The Times reports. State officials do not appear to be taking the news lightly, however. “Over the past four months, we have crushed the curve, but folks, this is sobering,” Murphy said on July 29. “We are now back—plus or minus—to where we were a month ago in the daily number of new cases. We can’t go backward. We can’t afford to go backward.” And for more surprising COVID surges, This Once “Safe” Destination Is Now Having a COVID Outbreak.
