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WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 104 (2020) limited the scope of
service and hours of operation for restaurants and certain retail
establishments to balance the need to allow individuals to access
food and other essential materials with the need to limit
unnecessary person-to-person contact; and
WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 104 (2020) deemed a subset of
businesses as “essential,” including grocery/food stores,
pharmacies, medical supply stores, gas stations, healthcare
facilities, and ancillary stores within healthcare facilities, and
it authorized the State Director of Emergency Management, who is
the Superintendent of State Police, to make additions, amendments,
clarifications, exceptions, and exclusions to that list; and
WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 104 (2020) made clear that such
essential businesses may continue operating without limits on
their scope of service or hours of operation, absent further
amendments by the State Director of Emergency Management; and
WHEREAS, Executive Order No. 104 (2020) and subsequent
Administrative Orders issued by the State Director of Emergency
Management also placed restrictions on other businesses’ scope of
service and hours of operation, and also placed restrictions on
the size of gatherings in the State; and
WHEREAS, as of March 20, 2020, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (“CDC”), there were more than
234,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with over 9,800 of
those cases having resulted in death; and
WHEREAS, as of March 20, 2020, there were more than 15,000
confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with at least
201 of those cases having resulted in death; and
WHEREAS, as of March 20, 2020, there were at least 890
positive cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey, with at least 11 of those
cases having resulted in death; and