COVID-19: Amendments to Executive Order Regarding Pet and Religious Stores, Car Dealerships

Published on April 28, 2020

The State Director of Emergency Management has issued some clarifications to Gov. Phil Murphy's Executive Order Number 107 regarding the operation of essential retail businesses and personal care services facilities during the COVID-19 crisis. (PNG, 54KB)

The amendments or clarifications include:

• Pets: Pet grooming, pet daycare, and pet boarding businesses shall be considered essential retail businesses, provided that they adopt in-person operation policies
  that include, at a minimum, the enhanced social distancing practices.
• Religious Stores: Stores that principally sell items necessary for religious observation or worship shall be considered essential retail businesses, provided that they adopt in-person operation policies that include, at a minimum, the enhanced social distancing practices.
• Car Dealerships: Car dealerships may permit customers who have ordered and/or purchased a vehicle online or by phone to test drive the vehicle at the time of pick-up or prior to delivery. However, the dealership must adopt in-person operation policies that 1) include, at a minimum, enhanced social distancing practices 2) permit the individual to access the vehicle alone, and 3) ensure that the dealership is appropriately clean and 4) sanitize the vehicle after a test drive if the customer does not purchase the vehicle.
• Personal Service Care Providers: Licensees, owners, operators, employees, or independent contractors of personal care services facilities ordered to be closed under Executive Order No. 107 are not permitted to provide personal care services in their own homes, the homes of others, or any facility or business setting except for providing service to household members, immediate family or other individuals with whom the provider has a close personal relationship, such as a romantic partner or someone for whom the personal care service provider is a caretaker.

A prior business relationship alone does not qualify as a close personal relationship, for purposes of this paragraph.