Last Call: Jersey Enacts City-Wide Liquor Curfew To Battle COVID-19 Spread

With community spreading underway in the Tri-state area, Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop said new containment measures to control the Covid-19 outbreak would start by curbing liquor sales at “larger nightclubs” after 10 pm.

At a news conference on Thursday afternoon, quoted by Bloomberg, Fulop said there are no confirmed virus cases in Jersey City, New Jersey’s second-most-populous area, and home to many Wall Street firms. He said it is now time to implement preventive measures, including restricting City Hall visits, suspending parking-permit sales and renewals, and canceling city-sponsored or permitted events. 

This was our OEM meeting. We had an update for press on JC Public Schools, we set a nightclub/liquor license curfew for 10pm to better limit uncontrolled large gatherings, we are going to appointment only for city services to practice ourself what we ask others to do, we are… https://t.co/O3KF17f8P7

— Steven Fulop (@StevenFulop) March 12, 2020

He also asked large restaurants “to be tracking attendance, best as they can” in case there’s an outbreak, which would allow health officials to easily find possible people with infections. 

The nightclub liquor restrictions are expected to start this weekend, he said. 

This comes at a time when mass gatherings across the country have been restricted to prevent the transmission of the fast-spreading virus. Already, Seattle, California, and Washington, D.C., have limited public gatherings over 250 people. 

And as we’ve seen across the world, the dominos start to fall when governments begin to restrict public gatherings, then comes restrictions on how long businesses can operate (now seen in Jersey City), to then mandatory closures. This is just what happened to Italy, closing all restaurants, leaving cities deserted, as the entire country is now in lockdown. 

If you know the blueprint of what is shutdown first – or at least restricted by government in the early days of a virus outbreak, you can then understand what the end result is: citywide or nationwide shutdowns. If you haven’t prepared for the economy grinding to a halt, now is the time.