Gov. Phil Murphy warned of the lingering presence of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite his decision last week to formally lift the state’s COVID-19 public health emergency.
Gov. Phil Murphy, First Lady Tammy Murphy and Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli visit Belmar and conduct a vaccine site visit at D’Jais Bar & Grill on June 4, 2021 – JOSUE LORA FOR THE OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR
“Let’s not kid ourselves. The public health emergency is over. The pandemic is not,” he said during a regular COVID-19 briefing on June 7 in Trenton.
On June 4, Murphy signed an executive order and a bill that was fast-tracked to his desk that would end the 15-month public health emergency, while keeping in place a set of key wartime powers.
Those measures are meant to phase the state out of the COVID-19 pandemic and toward its economic recovery, as the pandemic wanes, daily cases, hospitalizations and infection rate drops, vaccinations are ramped up, and reopenings for businesses take effect, lifting social distancing and mask mandates.
The new law allows Murphy to crank up restrictions if the COVID-19 virus rebounds, and allows his administration to continue overseeing vaccination efforts, testing and data collection. Hospital data-sharing will be required, as will heightened COVID-19 workplace safety standards.
Murphy’s self-imposed goal calls for fully vaccinating 4.7 million adults by June 30, after which the focus will turn to children below the ages of 16.
“We’re not hanging up our spikes on June 30. We’re going to stay at this,” Murphy said.
As of June 7, the state has fully vaccinated at least 4.2 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey. More than 5 million people have gotten at least one shot, according to state health data.
Pfizer was approved for use of the vaccine for people as young as 12, and Moderna is asking for emergency federal approval for younger people.
As part of “Operation Jersey Summer,” the Murphy administration and several local health departments have employed an array of tactics to get more shots into the arms of those final half a million New Jerseyans, including Hispanic and Black state residents, considered a particularly challenging demographic to inoculate against COVID-19. For lower-income, urban and typically minority communities, those efforts include mobile vaccine pop-up sites at community centers and places of worship.
Other efforts under Operation Jersey Summer include hundreds of canvassers who will knock on doors across the state to promote the vaccine and available sites, free beer and wine from participating breweries and wineries for those who get the first shot, free state park passes and the chance to win a sit-down dinner with the governor and dosage supply to local officials and medical offices.
