New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday he will sign an executive order authorizing Col. Pat Callahan, the State Police superintendent, to commandeer medical supplies and equipment needed to combat the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
The order, which Murphy announced during his daily briefing in Trenton, comes as hospitals throughout New Jersey are facing severe shortages in personal protective equipment, such as N95 masks and face shields, that the state’s overburdened health care workers desperately need.
While the state has received PPE from the federal stockpile and through corporate donations, Murphy has said it’s only been a fraction of what’s necessary. During Wednesday’s briefing, the governor said state has sourced around 10 million pieces of PPE at its own at a cost of “tens and tens of millions of dollars.”
Murphy signed an executive order last week requiring businesses throughout the state to provide the state with an inventory of the supplies and equipment they have. His latest order gives Callahan to authority to commandeer supplies and equipment that hasn’t been donated.
“We all certainly hope that Pat doesn’t have to use this authority. We would hope that folks will step forward and do the right thing,” Murphy said Thursday. “But if need be, we will use this authority.”
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump told reporters that the federal stockpile of PPE has been nearly exhausted even as the number of active cases of Covid-19 and hospitalizations continue to soar in New Jersey and elsewhere. In New Jersey, hospitals are increasingly having to divert patients away from their emergency rooms as they reach capacity.
Murphy began Thursday’s briefing by announcing that New Jersey had recorded 3,489 new positive Covid-19 cases, bringing the statewide total to 25,590 since the first case was detected early last month.
The state has also recorded 182 coronavirus-related deaths since Wednesday, bringing that total to 537. Murphy said not all of the deaths were within the last 24 hours because, for some, the cause of death took time to confirm.New Jersey has the second-most positive cases in the country, behind only New York.
At the same time, the state’s unemployment picture continues to remain dire as nonessential businesses have been ordered to shutter until further notice. Murphy said during the briefing that an unprecedented 362,000 new claims for jobless benefits have been filed over the last two weeks — including a record-shattering 206,253 last week.
Murphy said the state likely won’t see for a while how effective the strict social distancing orders he instituted on March 21 have been because testing results are delayed anywhere from seven to 12 days, in part because the labs that are testing samples have become overwhelmed.
“There’s limited resources and constraints in the entire system right now,” he said.
New Jersey has limited testing to individuals exhibiting symptoms in order to conserve the state’s limited capacity for testing. Last month, Murphy said the supply of swabs, as well as testing supplies, were not an immediate concern — particularly as more commercial labs came online.
That’s no longer the case.
“A week or 10 days ago, it wasn’t the testing labs. That reality has changed. Now all of the above are scarce resources,” Murphy said.
There‘s no data publicly available yet on hospital discharge rates or how many people have recovered from Covid-19. But Murphy said it’s clear that most people who contract Covid-19 recover, considering 85 percent have what Murphy said are “mild to moderate” symptoms.
“There’s then 15 percent who need a much more intensive health care experience. A good chunk of them will need to be hospitalized, some in more critical care environment or not,” Murphy said. “But there’s no question people are getting better.”
Sam Sutton contributed to this report.