Gov. Phil Murphy grew increasingly disturbed over the number of people ignoring his orders to stay home and the ban on public gatherings during the coronavirus outbreak and called on New Jersey residents Monday to do their part.

"No more knucklehead gatherings or parties. We have got to stay home,” Murphy said with an impassioned plea as he announced New Jersey now has at least 16,636 coronavirus cases including 198 deaths.

“We are New Jersey. We can do this,” Murphy said. "We have lived our lives punching above our weight. No state has more attitude or character. We are a special place. We can crush the top of that curve if we act as one.”

Murphy said “for somebody to willfully ignore” the rules he put in place is to “put somebody’s life at stake” and will not be tolerated.

“I want, if anything, to tighten the screws,” he said.

At the same time, State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan said a barbershop in Woodbridge was cited for being open (salons and barbershops are ordered to be closed until further notice), as well as a gym in Bridgeton that was hosting a meeting and additional charges in Lakewood.

Callahan didn’t immediately provide additional details on those cases.

Authorities, however, have announced that a Lakewood couple who hosted a gathering Sunday of 40 to 50 people on the lawn and street in front of their home were charged with five counts of child endangerment and the husband was charged with violating the ban on gatherings due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Eliezer Silber, 37, and his wife Miriam Silber, 34, were informed that large gatherings in New Jersey have been banned for more than a week due to the worsening coronavirus pandemic, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

The Siblers were charged with child endangerment because their five kids were present at the gathering, police said. Eliezer Silber was also charged with violating a rule or regulation adopted by the governor — specifically Executive Order No. 197. Murphy signed the order on March 21.

Two other Lakewood men, David Gluck, 42, and Abraham Haberfeld, 32, were also charged after hosting a large gathering at a school for Talmudic study. They were both cited with maintaining a nuisance after police broke up a gathering of 35 people inside the Bais Horaah of Lakewood on Madison Avenue on Monday morning.

Murphy administration officials put residents on warning last week not to flout the governor’s executive orders.

In an effort to slow the spread of the virus, Murphy has closed all schools in the state, ordered people to stay at home except for necessary travel, banned social gatherings, and ordered non-essential retail businesses to close until further notice.

On Sunday, Murphy reported 2,316 new known cases of the coronavirus in New Jersey as the statewide total climbed to at least 13,386 with at least 161 deaths as the potential peak of the outbreak could still be weeks away.

New Jersey, a state with 9 million residents, remains second in the nation for COVID-19 cases after New York. The increase was the second consecutive day with more than 2,000 new cases.

New Jersey’s number of cases is expected to keep growing as testing expands. But Murphy stressed that’s “not all bad news” because that will help the state get a better grasp on how to combat the spread of the fast-moving virus.

Right now, only symptomatic New Jersey residents are being tested, and the lag in results is stretching as long as seven days.

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NJ Advance Media Staffer Writer Jeff Goldman contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or Facebook.

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