Good weather kept police on New Hampshire’s seacoast busy this weekend as they tried to enforce beach restrictions related to COVID-19.
State officials said Friday that they would delay reopening the beaches due to high infection rates in nearby Massachusetts. Even so, on Saturday and Sunday, the coastal highway saw lots of motorists, pedestrians and even surfers trying to enjoy the warm weather.
Rye Police Chief Kevin Walsh says they’ve given out more than 200 parking tickets since March 1st – far more than normal for this time of year.
“Until people start to follow the mitigation plan, it’s not going to be healthy for us to open the beaches,” Walsh says.
Before reopening, Walsh says he especially wants to see hospitalization and death rates drop in southeast New Hampshire, near the state line.
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