Jersey Shore town suspends recreation programs after employees test positive for coronavirus – NJ.com

Manasquan has suspended its recreation programs for a week after several employees tested positive for the coronavirus, a borough official said in a video posted online Saturday.

A recreation counselor, junior guards counselor and several other employees tested positive for COVID-19, Councilman and Beach and Recreation Chair Michael Mangan said in the video. He did not provide details on their conditions.

Mangan said the town will pause its recreation programs to assess how many people were infected and who each person was in contact with. The beach will remain open, though Mangan reminded people to practice social distancing.

I know that the parents of young children in this town are all anxious to get their kids back involved in organizations where they socialize with each other. Thats crucial to their development. But we cant do that at the risk of public safety, Mangan said.

Right now, we can trace all the contacts for the cases we have, he said. If we have more positive cases, we will continue to release that information. As a parent, I can tell you the only thing I know is everyone wants to make sure they have all the information they need to make decisions for their own families.

To date, Monmouth County has reported 9,620 positive cases of coronavirus, 37 of which were in Manasquan. The state has slowly been allowing businesses to reopen in phases over the past month after the number of new cases hit its peak in April.

The boroughs decision not to shut down its recreation programs entirely was a measured approach, Mangan said. He said officials want to allow children to participate in activities while also keeping the population safe.

However, he said, if the health department cannot determine who was exposed and how many were exposed to the virus, then the programs would be canceled.

This virus is going to be with us for a while. This is not something thats going to go away this summer or even this fall as much as we want it to and we have to figure out a way to live with it and a way to deal with these cases as they come up, Mangan said. Were going o have to figure out a way to continue our society while seeing these cases of positive tests come back.

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Avalon Zoppo may be reached at azoppo2@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @AvalonZoppo.

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Jersey Shore town suspends recreation programs after employees test positive for coronavirus - NJ.com