New Jersey officials enacting extraordinary measures to slow the spread of cornavirus among residents — from closing schools to discouraging unnecessary gatherings — are also considering a statewide curfew, Gov. Phil Murphy said Sunday.

The state as a whole could follow the lead of Hoboken, where a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew will begin on Monday, or Teaneck, where residents have been told to self-quarantine.

“We’re not there at a statewide level on either of those steps, but we could be," Murphy said during a Sunday morning radio show on WBLS 107.5 FM. "The curfew is probably, of the two, is probably the more immediate one under consideration. But these are the things we have to consider, we have no choice.”

On Saturday, Murphy announced the second death in the state from coronavirus, a woman in her 50s who was being cared for at CentraState Medical Center in Monmouth County. On Sunday 31 new cases were confirmed, for a total 98 known coronavirus cases in New Jersey as of Sunday, and officials expect that number to rise as testing becomes more available.

The spread of the virus has altered daily life for New Jersey residents and with every day, there are more cases confirmed and new calls for social-distancing.

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Religious services have been scaled back. Ridership on NJ Transit is down 20% as companies tell workers to stay home. Store shelves have been stripped of essentials and nonperishable food items. Murphy has previously called for no public gatherings of 250 or more people, delaying if not canceling St. Patrick's Day parades.

Murphy said he was 99 percent certain he would announce mandated public school closures on Monday, but already more than 600 school districts, charters and private schools had closed their doors for at least one day because of coronavirus. Closing casinos is under consideration, the governor said.

More needs to be done to keep people from spreading the virus, and that could include a curfew, Murphy said Sunday afternoon during a daily briefing.

“I saw too many videos last night of packed bars, people passing bottles drinking from the same bottle, literally globbed on top of each other,” Murphy said. “In short of shutting the entire state down, clipping establishments by a number of hours each night in particular we believe will have a meaningful, positive outcome in terms of social distancing.”

Murphy declared both a state of emergency and a public health emergency via an executive order on March 9. The laws give state officials more latitude, and more resources, to respond quickly to a crisis. States of emergency are more frequently declared in instances of severe weather, and in rare circumstances officials can use their authority to bar travel on state roadways and restrict the public’s movements, according to the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management.

All but two states — Oklahoma and Maine — have declared a state of emergency or a public health emergency because of coronavirus, according to the National Governor’s Association. Other governors, including those in Washington and Massachusetts, have the authority to issue curfews but have not done so.

New Jersey’s Emergency Health Powers Act, under which Murphy declared a public health emergency, also gives the state more power to respond and “take all reasonable and necessary measures to prevent the transmission of infectious disease,” including closing public and private buildings, ordering quarantines and requiring vaccinations. Local health departments and municipal governments can also pursue more stringent measures that do not conflict with state mandates, according to Murphy's executive order.

In Teaneck, where most of Bergen County's presumed positive cases are located — 18 as of Saturday — the mayor asked 41,000 residents to self-quarantine and leave their homes only for food and medications. In Hoboken, Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla announced the 10 p.m. curfew, and a mandate that bars be closed and restaurants limited to take-out and delivery, as ways to prevent large gatherings in the city and alleviate burden on emergency responders.

Bhalla said in a statement announcing the restrictions that police responding to a bar fight in the city on Saturday night had to wait more than 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive.

"Our EMS is inundated with service calls," he said in a statement. "This is unfortunately a contributing factor why we cannot continue bar operations which can trigger calls for service that are delayed in part because of this public health crisis."

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Murphy acknowledged the stress "draconian" social changes like quarantines and curfews can have, but urged calm.

“The anxiety is real — we get that without any question,” the governor said. “Who wouldn’t be anxious in a time we’re going through something that none of us have been through before? But I do want to underscore — no time to panic. Let’s be smart about what we do. Let’s be proactive.”

Murphy reminded residents to stay 6 feet apart, cough into their sleeves, wash their hands "religiously," and stay home if they feel sick, all measures that can help prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Bergen County has more cases than any other county, with 32 confirmed cases, according to the state's count. In addition to the 18 Teaneck cases there are known cases in Englewood, Fair Lawn, Bergenfield, Dumont, Fort Lee, Garfield, Little Ferry, Paramus and Wood-Ridge. The patient in Little Ferry, a 69-year-old man, was the state's first fatality from coronavirus. There are a dozen cases in each Monmouth and Middlesex county.

Murphy, who announced 31 new cases on Sunday, said he expected the number of cases to continue to rise as testing becomes more widely available. State officials said Saturday a widespread testing center will come online at Bergen Community College in Paramus, but details were not made available.

"The numbers are going to go up before they come down, but again, we’ll get through it assuming we all do our own share and we all do our own part," Murphy said.

Stacey Barchenger is a reporter in the New Jersey Statehouse. For unlimited access to her work covering New Jersey’s lawmakers and political power structure, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: sbarchenger@gannettnj.com Twitter: @sbarchenger