The pictures have popped up on social media since social distancing became a necessity to battle the spread of the coronavirus.

Groups of neighborhood dads or moms spread out in a circle, drinking beer or wine in the street. A gaggle of teenagers sitting atop their parked cars, hanging out apart from each other. A pair of fishermen standing more than six feet apart in a shallow river.

Those precautions are all in the name of preventing the spread of the respiratory virus within New Jersey and the United States. But to practice true social distancing, those gatherings shouldn’t happen at all, according to one health expert.

Dr. Maria Ciminelli, the president of the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians and director of the CentraState Family Medicine Residency Program, said guidelines for people to remain six feet apart are meant only for those essential trips outside the home. Any extended, unnecessary contact with people, even six feet apart, violates the spirit of the precautions.

“If you’re going to practice intense social distancing, it really means avoiding or limiting contact with people outside of your family, and really staying home most of the time, unless you really need to go out,” Ciminelli said. “But any prolonged kind of engagement outside is really still not social distancing, having that prolonged contact with people that are not in your family."

Ciminelli said the six-feet rule is for when people need to leave their homes for essential reasons, such as running to the store for groceries, or going on a run or walk for the good of physical and mental health.

Maintaining a safe distance from other people while outside the home is essential, but the effect is lost when meeting up with non-family members for a longer period of time.

“Having the six feet distance is certainly what’s necessary, but doing that in a prolonged setting is not intense social distancing,” she said. “And right now, we kind of need to do that. We see the numbers of infection still continue to grow, and we’ll probably continue to see that for some time, especially now that we’re getting more testing done.”

Cases of the coronavirus in New Jersey have continued to spike, jumping to 8,825 on Friday after Gov. Phil Murphy announced 1,982 new positive tests. Ciminelli hasn’t been surprised by the continued climb of cases, even with social distancing practices put in place. But people still need to continue the practice to help that growth hit its peak.

“Usually it takes a few weeks of good social distancing to really start seeing the term you’re hearing everywhere, the flattening of the curve,” she said. “To start seeing the decrease and not more exponential growth of infected numbers.”

Get updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, by subscribing to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter, signing up for text message alerts, or visiting nj.com/coronavirus.

More coverage

Track the spread of coronavirus in each county of New Jersey through this map.

Coronavirus is scary: We want to hear and tell your inspiring stories. Check out #TogetherNJ for more stories about people showing love in big and small ways.

NJ is Open* is helping essential New Jersey businesses connect with their customers. Learn more at nj.com/open.

Tell us your coronavirus stories, whether it’s a news tip, a topic you want us to cover, or a personal story you want to share.

Sign up for text message alerts from NJ.com on coronavirus in New Jersey:





Chris Ryan may be reached at cryan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisRyan_NJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.