TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - New Jersey will more than double the number of public health professionals tracing COVID-19 cases, Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday.
The state will hire at least 1,000 people, creating a Community Contact Tracing Corps and supplementing the roughly 800 to 900 mostly county health officials who are tracing the people with whom coronavirus-positive residents have had contact, the first-term Democrat said.
The news came as Murphy announced the state’s COVID-19 data is trending in the right direction, though he stopped short of specifying dates when the state might reopen its economy.
Newly hospitalized patients with COVID-19 are down 44% since late April; the number of people in the hospital is down 34%; and patients in intensive care and on ventilators are down by an average of 27%, the governor said.
“The road back is paved with five words: Public health creates economic health,” Murphy said. “We will move as quickly as we can but as safely as we must.”
But while that data is headed in the right direction, Murphy said, New Jersey still leads the nation in positive cases, hospitalizations and deaths per 100,000 people.
The state added about 900 new positive cases since Monday, bringing the total to about 141,000. It’s the first time since March 25 that the number of new cases has been below 1,000, Murphy pointed out. There were 198 deaths reported since Monday, bringing the death toll to 9,508.
The state’s more than 500 long-term care facilities must also test all their residents for the virus by May 26 under a new health department order, Murphy said. There must also be a follow-up test a week later, and facilities must update their outbreak prevention plans by May 19, he added.
Murphy unveiled a six-part plan last month aimed at reopening. Increasing testing and contact tracing were initial components of the plan.
Despite calls from some protesters calling for reopening the state immediately, Murphy’s job approval ratings have been high, according to polls.
Murphy repeated his calls for doubling testing to about 20,000 a day by the end of the month. He said expanding testing to first responders was an easy call and argued that expanding to people without symptoms would boost confidence that the state is ready to reopen.
“(It gives) everybody out there the confidence that we have the infrastructure in place and that they know we’re on it, that we can spot a community spread or flareup with very short notice. That gives everybody in the state a kick in their step, a confidence to say, ‘You know what, I’m good on going to the county parks,’” he said.
The contact tracing jobs would pay $20 to $25 an hour, and the testing and tracing program would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars, Murphy said.
For most people, the virus causes mild or moderate symptoms that clear up within weeks. Older adults and people with existing health problems are at higher risk of more severe illness or death.
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CASINOS
A state Senate panel on Tuesday advanced a pair of bills that would have the state Health Department set standards for Atlantic City’s nine casinos to meet before they can reopen. They also would apply to hotels across the state.
The Democratic-sponsored bills would have the department set standards on disinfection of rooms, elevators, surfaces, kitchens, gambling floors and other high-traffic areas, as well as training of workers on safe practices. They would also require the continuation of social distancing standards, including a prohibition of gatherings of more than 10 people.
The Casino Association of New Jersey has already contracted with the AtlantiCare hospital system to do the same thing for the casinos, including developing recommendations on best operating and cleaning practices. No date has yet been given for reopening the casinos, which Murphy ordered closed on March 16.
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Associated Press writer Wayne Parry in Atlantic City contributed to this report.
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