I’m a nun and I’ve been social distancing for 29 years. Here are tips for staying home amid coronavirus fears.

For the past 29 years, I’ve chosen to practice social distancing.

Of course, I and the 17 other nuns I live with don’t call it that.

We are formally called cloistered sisters, meaning we never leave our walled-off monastery in Summit except for doctors’ visits or perhaps shopping for a specific item. We don’t go to parties or weddings or out to eat with friends. I often go months without leaving our 8-acre home.

The coronavirusis forcing many people in New Jersey and across the world to stay home, limit outside contact — and in a way, start living life like cloistered nuns.Of course, this virus i… Read the rest of this entry »

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All New Jersey public schools will be ordered on Monday to close because of coronavirus, governor says

Gov. Phil Murphy said he expects to announce Monday that New Jersey will order all of its public schools be shut down until further notice to minimize exposure to the coronavirus.

Murphy said during a telephone briefing with reporters Sunday that an “extended statewide school shutdown is imminent” and will likely be announced at a news conference Monday.

The state will communicate with school officials and other leaders through Monday morning to “ensure a singular message,” the governor said.

Murphy said he wants to make sure school officials, parents, and students have “clear guidance and are pre… Read the rest of this entry »

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Murphy: ‘More draconian steps’ to stop coronavirus spread likely coming to N.J.

As coronavirus cases continue to grow, New Jerseyans can expect “more draconian measures” in the coming days and weeks to prevent its spread in the state, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Sunday morning.

He said people should look to Hoboken and Teaneck, where curfews and calls by local officials to self-quarantine have been put in place, as examples of what to expect as the numbers of people who test positive for the virus rise.“(It’s) the notion of keeping population groupings low,” Murphy said on a morning call to WBLS to discuss the state’s response.“We will be looking at more draconian steps,” he s… Read the rest of this entry »

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President Donald Trump tests negative for coronavirus, his doctor says

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has tested negative for the new coronavirus, according to the president’s personal physician.

The White House released the test results Saturday night after Trump told reporters hours earlier that he had taken the coronavirus test, following days of resisting being screened despite the fact that he had been in recent contact with three people who have tested positive for the virus.

Trump told reporters at a White House briefing on Saturday that he had his temperature taken and it was “totally normal,” shortly before stepping into the room to discuss the g… Read the rest of this entry »

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N.J. municipal court sessions suspended over coronavirus concerns

Municipal court sessions in New Jersey will be suspended for two weeks to minimize exposure to the coronavirus, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Stuart Rabner announced Saturday.

Anyone scheduled to appear in court between Monday, March 16, and Friday, March 27, to contest a traffic or parking ticket, or a minor local ordinance violation, should wait to receive a new court date.

Municipal courts will continue handling items such as temporary restraining orders, hearings in which a defendant has been detained and matters involving public safety, Rabner noted.Attorneys and others still required t… Read the rest of this entry »

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What Trump’s national emergency and new legislation for coronavirus will mean for N.J.

WASHINGTON— Two new pools of federal money will flow to New Jersey to help the state cope with the coronavirus.

President Donald Trump’s national emergency will free up $50 billion in federal funds for New Jersey and other states to tap to help cover their costs of responding to the virus. The president called it “a large amount of money for states and territories and localities in our shared fight against this disease.”

And bipartisan legislation that passed the House early Saturday could mean $810 million in new Medicaid funding for the state, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorit… Read the rest of this entry »

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Trump: Google building self-check website for coronavirus

President Donald Trump announced Friday that internet giant Alphabet is creating a website where people will be able to check whether they have  symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

Verily Life Sciences, once a project in a Google X lab devoted to “moonshot” projects and now its own health business unit, is testing a “tool to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing,” Google confirmed on Twitter.”Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time,” the tweet said, referring to San Francisco and s… Read the rest of this entry »

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Physical Therapist in Manasquan Charged With Sexual Contact With Two Employees

Lukas DeLorenzo

Lukas I. DeLorenzo, 35, of Neptune Township, was charged yesterday with fourth degree Sexual Contact for illegally groping two employees under the guise of training them in physical therapy, according to an announcement by Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

DeLorenzo and his wife, Katherine, are the owners of Coast Rehab, a physical therapy practice with locations in Manasquan and New York City. Read the rest of this entry »

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Trump says widespread coronavirus testing to begin ‘soon’ as administration cuts red tape

(USA Features) President Donald Trump said Friday that thanks to reductions in regulatory burdens widespread testing of Americans for COVID-19 are set to begin “soon.”

“The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!” he wrote in a tweet Friday morning.

The president also criticized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the lead organization in the health fight against the virus, for having a testing system in place he said would “always be inadequate and slow for a large pandemic.” It wasn’t clear what syst… Read the rest of this entry »

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Greg’s List: Things to do in Monmouth County if we’re not quarantined this weekend, March 13-15, 2019

By Greg Kelly

Friday, March 13:

• The Experience Continues by Spotlight Players (Matawan) – MORE INFO
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Algonquin Arts Theatre (Manasquan) – MORE INFO
• “August Wilson’s Radio Golf” at Two River Theater (Red Bank) – MORE INFO
• “The Promotion” at NJ Repertory Theatre (Long Branch) – MORE INFO
• Irish Tenor Emmet Cahill (Middletown) – MORE INFO
• Super Smash Brothers Ultimate Tournament at BCC (Lincroft) – MORE INFO
• Film: Alive Inside, Free Music & Dinner (Asbury Park) – MORE INFO
• CLUB MAC High School Musical (Middletown) – MORE INFO

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