New Jersey is going to need to see a lot more from the Trump administration before it can open its economy, Gov. Phil Murphy said Tuesday.
With hospitals in suburban communities outside New York City battling a surge of Covid-19 cases, New Jersey still faces shortages of critical medical supplies — including a prospective shortfall of nearly 1,000 ventilators — to withstand the growing number of patients in critical or intensive care.
“We can’t begin to think about reopening unless the resources we get — in particular, the cooperation and resources we get from the federal government — are a lot more robust than they have been,” Murphy, a progressive who chairs the Democratic Governors Association, said during his daily coronavirus briefing. “We will continue to play our hand to its maximum potential but, boy, do we need help.”
Murphy’s plea for additional support from Washington came less than 24 hours after President Donald Trump claimed that he alone would have the authority to decide when and how states will restart their economies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Murphy on Monday afternoon formalized an agreement with the Democratic leaders of New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania to take a collective approach in tackling the myriad challenges that await any economic revival. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, joined the collective later that afternoon as the governors of California, Oregon and Washington formed a West Coast version of the same compact.
Trump didn’t take kindly to the regional collectives.
“When somebody’s president of the United States, the authority is total," Trump said at a press briefing on Monday. "And that’s the way it’s got to to be. It's total.
It’s total. And the governors know that.”New Jersey officials believe the Garden State is still several weeks away from being through the worst of the pandemic. State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Tuesday that current modeling, which changes daily, suggests hospitalizations will peak at roughly 16,000 sometime around April 25.
The model also suggests at least 3,500 patients will require ventilators, which is well short of what the state has on hand, she said.
The damage wrought by the pandemic so far has been substantial. New Jersey officials on Tuesday reported 365 more deaths linked to Covid-19, bringing the statewide total to 2,805. That’s the second-highest death toll in the U.S. The state also reported 4,059 new cases of the virus, bringing that total to 68,824 since the first case was confirmed on March 4.
Even after the surge, New Jersey and other states in the Northeast won’t have the testing infrastructure in place to safely reopen schools, restaurants and retail businesses, Murphy said Tuesday.
“There is no question that testing anywhere in our country is not nearly where it needs to be and New Jersey is no exception,” Murphy said, echoing comments he’s made over the past month. “We need reliable, safe access to testing for everyone and we need it everywhere, particularly as we begin wargaming and thinking through the how and when … we begin to responsibly reopen our state.”
While other leaders in the Northeast, most notably New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have demonstrated a willingness to throw elbows over the Trump administration’s muddled response to the crisis, Murphy — a Goldman Sachs alum and former ambassador to Germany — has been reluctant to antagonize members of the president’s inner circle.
As the federal government delivered much-needed personal protective equipment and ventilators to New Jersey’s stockpile, Murphy went out of his way to thank Trump stalwarts like Vice President Mike Pence, son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, as well as Kellyanne Conway, for their assistance in aiding the state’s response.
The diplomatic approach has burnished the progressive governor’s standing with Trump, whom many party leaders fear is allocating medical resources in response to flattery or criticism, rather than need.
Late last week, Trump floated Murphy as a possible nominee for his Opening Our Country Council, which would be tasked with helping coordinate the nation’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
“As they start to think through …. what sort of healthcare infrastructure we need as a country, and what it looks like when we begin to open back up again, I raise my hand on behalf of New Jersey that we would be honored, and would want to be part of that discussion and process,” Murphy said at his press briefing, describing a phone call he had with Pence Tuesday morning.
The regional reopening strategy pursued by states in the Northeast and on the West Coast isn’t mutually exclusive of what will be required at the federal level, Murphy said, adding that he conveyed that sentiment to Pence as well.
“[The regional approach] is not in lieu of, that is not ‘instead of.’ It never will be ‘instead of.’ It never will be instead of the deep cooperation we need from the federal government,” Murphy said, describing the phone call with the vice president. “We need the administration. We need the federal government and the full force of it."
“Both of those statements can stand,” he said. “They’re not at odds with each other.“