UPDATED Hoboken To Reopen Its Playgrounds Thursday

HOBOKEN, NJ — Mayor Ravi Bhalla said on Facebook on Sunday evening that the mile-square city plans to reopen its playgrounds on Thursday. While most city parks reopened during the first week in May (see the list), the city held off on reopening playgrounds.

[UPDATE: Gov. Phil Murphy's office told Bhalla on Monday that he must hold off. See this update.]

Bhalla wrote:

Residents responded by asking questions about cleaning, and debating whether kids should wear facemasks as Bhalla recommended in his post.

Thirty Hoboken residents have passed away from coronavirus since March, although the number of new cases has been dwindling. Hoboken was one of the first cities to begin shutting down certain facilities and businesses to slow the spread of the virus, which has taken the lives of more than 12,000 New Jerseyans in 12 weeks.

Playgrounds in Hoboken were shut down on March 14.

Starting this week, day cares were allowed to reopen statewide, as were restaurants for outdoor dining. For a story about the latter in Hoboken, click here.

The CDC has offered guidelines for protecting kids from coronavirus, and discussed a related inflammatory illness in children.

As of last Monday, a total of 12,176 New Jersey residents had died of covid-19 in three months, during a period at which people were starting to self-isolate. More than 113,000 Americans have died of the virus in that same period. For contrast, the CDC estimates that 61,000 Americans died of the flu during the 2017-2018 flu season.

On Thursday, April 30, the state reached an all-time high death rate. That day, Gov. Murphy said that 460 New Jerseyans had been lost to the virus in 24 hours, or one person every three minutes. The governor said reopening will occur in stages to avoid a new spike. READ MORE.

Here are statewide coronavirus resources:

• NJ COVID-19 Information Hub: https://covid19.nj.gov/
• General COVID-19 questions: 2-1-1
• NJ COVID-19 hotline: (800) 222-1222

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