As New Jersey continues under a state of emergency due to the coronavirus, please know that my district office remains available to serve constituents by phone and email. Included below are links to information that you may find helpful, along with important state and national news updates related to COVID-19.
New Jersey is joining the federal government in extending the deadline to file and pay income taxes until July 15, according to a joint statement by Governor Phil Murphy, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin. The State Budget Deadline has been postponed from June 30 to September 30.
NJ Attorney General Gurbir Grewal today announced statewide restrictions for prescribing and dispensing Hydroxychloroquine and Chloroquine, two existing drugs that have shown promise in treating COVID-19.
New Jersey hasn’t yet been able to model an anticipated surge in demand for hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients because it doesn’t have data on the effects of social distancing, but there are signs that hospitals will be able to cope, according to the state’s Commissioner of Health, Judith Persichilli.
The state’s health officials have been using CHIME, a tool for COVID-19 hospital capacity planning, which Penn Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania issued in mid-March. The tool, which has been made available to health care providers in 150 countries via open-source software, allows users to input data including the percentage of infected patients who have been hospitalized; the number of patients currently hospitalized, and the population a hospital system serves.
The resulting model also relies on the degree to which social distancing has reduced social contact, and that data wasn’t yet available, Persichilli said at Gov. Phil Murphy’s Friday briefing on the pandemic.
TRENTON – The New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA) Board today approved a suite of new programs designed to support businesses and workers facing economic hardship due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
Senator Declan O’Scanlon said that the Governor’s Office told him that computer repair shops are considered essential and that they are allowed to open in the current COVID-19 shutdown.
Governor Phil Murphy issued an Executive Order today which requires all New Jersey child care centers to certify that they are serving only the families of essential workers or close.
The certification is due on Friday, March 27. Centers that do not certify that can and will solely care for the children of essential workers must close by Wednesday, April 1.
