Heading To A Hoboken Bar Or Restaurant? Give Your Digits

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla and the Hoboken Office of Emergency Management announced on Wednesday that as of Friday, businesses in the mile-square city including restaurants, bars, gyms, wellness establishments, fitness studios, salons, and health clubs, will be required to record contact information and time of arrival of customers.

Information collected by the business will only be shared with the Hoboken Health Department in the event of a positive COVID-19 case, and will only be utilized for contact tracing purposes.

The city said the new requirements are meant "to boost contact tracing efforts in an effort to prevent COVID-19 outbreaks and protect the health and safety of the Hoboken community."

The requirement does not pertain to:

• Take-out or delivery services
• Grocery stores
• Bodegas
• Retail stores
• Dry cleaners, or
• "Any situation where a customer is not in a prolonged contact with other customers or employees."

The Office of Emergency Management directive also requires all businesses to notify the Hoboken Health Department in the instance of an employee testing positive for COVID-19, to facilitate contact tracing. Businesses can confidentially notify the Hoboken Health Department of an employee testing positive for COVID-19 by emailing healthdepartment@hobokennj.gov.

Mayor Bhalla said, “I’m extremely appreciative to the majority of businesses for taking the necessary health precautions to keep both their employees and customers safe. It has been a very challenging time for our small business owners, but above all else I know they care about the health and safety of our community. Despite these best efforts, unfortunately the Hoboken Health Department has reported an uptick in employees of local businesses, including bars and restaurants, testing positive for COVID-19."

He said the information can be discarded by the business after 30 days.

"This order is not meant to place an unnecessary burden on our small businesses," he said, "but rather to assist them in keeping customers safe in the event of a positive case, prevent outbreaks, and to provide health guidance to customers. This is a process that has been successfully implemented in places such as New York City and Michigan."

He also said that employees in Hoboken who test positive, but don't live there, should let the Health Department know by emailing healthdepartment@hobokennj.gov.

Hoboken updates

On Wednesday, the mayor said Hoboken University Medical Center has 14 coronavirus patients, including six Hoboken residents. This a change from last week, when the mayor said 17 people were fighting the virus at the hospital, including six Hoboken residents.

On Monday, the city confirmed five new cases, and 11 on Tuesday, bringing the total citywide to 1,202 since the beginning of the pandemic. Fatalities remain unchanged at 31.

Over the weekend, the state of New Jersey said it had confirmed the highest number of new cases since in April.

On Sunday, the State of New Jersey reported 18 new fatalities since the day before, and a record high of 4,540 new cases, following 4,395 positive cases on Saturday. Before that, the highest one-day total was 4,391 on April 17.

Doctors have said that a number of factors are contributing to the drop in the death rate since spring, including people getting test results (and thus treatment) sooner, more protective equipment available in hospitals, and doctors becoming better able to treat the virus. However, the virus still can have long-term effects.

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