NEW JERSEY — New Jersey is "close" to a statewide shutdown of schools, but Gov. Phil Murphy on Saturday said the Garden State is not quite ready to do so yet. Nineteen new cases were also announced.

Murphy said the state is still "not yet at a position to make an announcement" on the schools as the number of statewide cases rose from from 50 to 69 on Saturday. The new cases are in the following counties: Bergen (7), Middlesex (7), Essex (2), Hudson (2) and Monmouth (1). Thirteen involve women and six are men, all ranging in age from 18 to 80. Read more: NJ Coronavirus Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

Ocean County officials also said a preganant Toms River woman tested positive for the coronavirus. Read more: Pregnant Toms River Woman Is Positive For Coronavirus: County Before closing, Murphy said, the state needs to deal with children whose "only reliable meal" is from their school. He said there are also implications for children and daycare, as well as the question of remote access, that need to be sorted out before a statewide shutdown.

"We are close," Murphy said. Murphy said a number of students still need to prepare for distance learning, and perhaps as many as 260,000 of the 1.4 million in the state cannot adequately access online classroom materials, he said. "We need to mitigate the impacts," he said.



Officials also noted other steps are being taken, noting that the American Dream site will close on Sunday and all movie theaters in Bergen County – which has a total of 25 cases – will shut.

The governor said it's also important to lessen anxiety. "We will get through this," Murphy said. "We will not get through this unscathed."