While Gov. Phil Murphy continues to put off a review of his administration’s performance during the pandemic, more than 50% of New Jersey voters support the state’s actions in handling the pandemic.
Respondents to a recent Monmouth University Poll largely gave positive reviews to Murphy-led action over the last year and a half, despite a majority believing his administration bears some responsibility for the pain experienced by small businesses and the number of coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes at the beginning of the pandemic. Additionally, the poll found a majority of voters support reinstating stricter COVID safety protocols, including a majority of those who remain undecided in this year’s election for governor.
“Murphy’s handling of the pandemic continues to be his strongest asset,” said Patrick Murray, director of the independent Monmouth University Polling Institute. ”New Jerseyans acknowledge there have been missteps over the past eighteen months, some of them very serious, but that has not noticeably weakened their overall view of his COVID performance.”
Over 50% Job Performance Rating
The first term governor’s overall job performance rating among New Jersey voters stands at 52% approve and 38% disapprove, down from his May rating of 57%/36% but in line with his rating last month 54%/36%. The governor continues to get broadly positive reviews for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, with 62% saying he has done a good job compared to just 27% who say he has done a bad job. His pandemic rating was similar in August (61% to 28%) and May (65% to 28%).
Thank you for relying on North-JerseyNews.com to provide you the stories from Washington and Trenton that affect us. Please consider supporting North-JerseyNews.com with a voluntary donation.
But not all of Murphy’s moves were met with agreement. Eighty two percent responded strict restrictions and lockdowns imposed by the state during the pandemic hurt New Jersey small businesses a lot. A plurality of New Jersey residents polled felt it was possible to have managed the pandemic in a way that small businesses did not get hurt—24% say this was definitely possible and 29% say it was probably possible.
Long-Term Care Fatalities
Critics of Murphy have pointed to his decision to have residents of long-term care facilities readmitted to nursing homes after being discharged by hospitals in the early days of the pandemic. Nearly all voters have heard either a lot (61%) or a little (33%) about COVID deaths that occurred in New Jersey nursing homes. Twenty three percent of respondents believe the Murphy administration bears either a great deal of responsibility for these deaths along with 30% answering some.
While Monmouth’s Murray noted the governor’s opponents have been trying to focus voters’ attention on what they see as major failings in his handling of the pandemic, “we don’t see evidence in the poll, though, that knowing about these issues is putting a major dent in Murphy’s numbers.”
Waiting on a Post Mortem
At both of his press briefings this week, Murphy was pressed when a post mortem he promised would be started and if voters deserve to know the results before election day.
“No update on the post-mortem, but we’re committed to that. That hasn’t changed,” said Murphy, who reiterated he is committed to an independent examination of the administration’s action. “There’s clearly going to be a point—I want to be unequivocal about this—that we’re going to feel like we can finally say you know what? We’re not in hand-to-hand combat as we remain, unfortunately, today.”
Despite no report forthcoming on any missteps the Murphy Administration has made in the past 18 months in regards to the pandemic, the public is still backing the health protocols Murphy and his health officials have pushed. In fact, the Monmouth Poll found they are looking for more.
Support for Mask Mandates
“This is due in part to a sense that he was right about the broader policies on masking and social distancing. In fact, many would like to see him reinstate these protocols,” said Murray.
About 6 in 10 voters (61%) support reinstituting general face mask and social distancing guidelines in New Jersey. This comes as 43% are very concerned about a family member becoming seriously ill from COVID. Just over half (51%) of all New Jersey voters say measures taken by the state government to slow the spread of the virus have been appropriate.
Currently, 17% surveyed feel the state has, in fact, not gone far enough, lower than 24% in August, but still slightly higher than 13% in May. That is in contrast to the 28% who responded to New Jersey’s COVID measures have gone too far, which is similar to prior results in August (25%).
No Path for Ciattarelli
With an eye towards November, Murray said the poll shows backers of Murphy are decidedly in favor of safety protocols and less likely to put the blame for small business problems and nursing home deaths on the governor. Conversely, supporters of GOP nominee Jack Ciattarelli feel quite differently about it.
The bad news for Ciattarelli is that undecided voters would berak to Murphy on this issue. With a quarter of voters still only leaning toward a candidate, 60% say the pandemic could have been handled with less pain for small businesses and 52% believe the Murphy administration bears at least some responsibility for the number of nursing home COVID deaths. However, 57% of this cohort feels Murphy has done a good job with the pandemic overall and 61% support reinstating face mask and social distancing guidelines.
“There are probably very few truly persuadable voters left in New Jersey right now, but if anyone can be swayed it should be this group of undecideds. Their views on COVID, though, tend to align more with Murphy’s approach than Ciattarelli’s,” said Murray.
Vaccine Distribution
The number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in New Jersey totaled 11,549,807 in-state, plus an additional 427,441 administered out-of-state for a grand total of 11,977,248 as of Sept. 24. Of those who have received the vaccine, 5,627,551 received their second dose or the one jab Johnson & Johnson dose in state and another 184,086 out of state, bringing those fully vaccinated to 5,811,637.
In North Jersey, Bergen County has delivered 1,289,785 doses (629,231 fully vaccinated), Essex 1,003,287 doses (482,230), Hudson 909,108 doses (437,680), Morris 699,188 doses (340,236), Passaic 622,764 doses (301,018), Sussex 164,757 doses (81,623), and Warren 107,786 doses (52,955).
Daily Data
As of Sept. 24, the cumulative number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New Jersey was 994,463 with 1,830 total new PCR cases. There were 461 probable cases, bringing the cumulative total of antigen tests to 149,392. The total number of individual cases for the state is 1,143,855.
(Editor’s Note: The story was updated at 12:40 p.m. to up the daily numbers as of Sept. 24.)
As for those that have passed, the state reported 20 confirmed deaths, bringing that total to 24,534. The state listed probable deaths at 2,773, bringing the overall total to 27,307. State officials noted 10 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours of reporting that have not yet been lab confirmed.
For North Jersey counties on Sept. 24, Bergen had a total of 195 new confirmed cases and 51 new probable cases, Essex 138 new cases and 23 new probable case, Hudson 96 new cases and 12 new probable cases, Morris 60 new confirmed cases and 34 new probable cases, Passaic 94 new cases and 32 new probable cases, Sussex 45 new cases and 11 new probable cases, and Warren 22 new cases and seven new probable cases.
Of the total confirmed deaths in North Jersey, Essex County has the most with 2,808, followed by Bergen at 2,642, Hudson with 2,138, Passaic at 1,778, Morris at 1,014, Sussex at 249, and Warren County at 223.
In regards to probable deaths reported Sept. 20, Essex has 310, Bergen has 306, Morris has 264, Hudson has 222, Passaic has 206, Sussex has 68 and Warren has 26.
Of the 5,378,465 fully vaccinated individuals studied as of Sept. 7, 22,246 New Jersey residents have tested positive for COVID who were fully vaccinated, resulting in 457 COVID-related hospitalizations and 111 COVID-related deaths. All those are less than 1% in each category.
In the week of Aug. 30-Sept. 6, breakthroughs accounted for 23.2% of all new cases (2,982 of 12,827), 3.4% of new hospilizations (49 of 1,138), and none of the 78 deaths.
State Testing
As for the rate of transmission reported Sept. 24, it declined to 1.05 from the 1.06 the day before. The daily rate of infections from those tested Sept. 18 was 6.5%; by region, the rate was 5.5% in the North, 7.6% in the Central region and 7.7% in the South.
The state reported 1,108 patients were hospitalized; by region, there were 368 in the North, 351 in the Central and 389 in the South. Of those hospitalized, 249 are in intensive care units and 132 on ventilators. A total of 145 patients were discharged in the last 24 hour reporting period.
Officials have continually cited transmission rate, hospitalizations, intensive care units, ventilators and positivity rate as health data they rely on to track how the coronavirus is being contained in New Jersey, guiding them in determining when restrictions have to be tightened or lifted.
School Outbreaks
In regards to cases related to in-school transmissions, the state has tracked 23 school outbreaks and 102 cases linked to those outbreaks since the 2021/2022 school year starting Aug. 7. Outbreaks are defined as three or more laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases among students or staff with onsets within a 14 day period, linked within the school setting, do not share a household, and were not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting during standard case investigation or contact tracing.
For North Jersey, Bergen County has one confirmed outbreak with four cases, Sussex has one confirmed outbreak with four cases, Morris County has three confirmed outbreaks with 15 cases, and Hudson County has two confirmed outbreaks with nine cases. No outbreaks were reported in Essex, Passaic and Warren counties.
Long-term Care Facilities
Health officials noted 153 long-term care facilities are currently reporting at least one case of COVID-19, accounting for a total of 1,186 of the cases, broken down between 660 residents and 526 staff.
Cumulatively, 1,710 long-term care facilities reported a case infecting 33,581 residents and 22,924 staff, for a total of 56,505.
The state’s official death total will now be reported as those that are lab confirmed, sits at 8,528 on Sept. 24. The facilities are reporting to the state 7,950 residents deaths and 145 staff deaths.
How can Murphy’s handling of the Covid pandemic be his strongest point when he is responsible for the disastrous death toll in nursing homes and generally making New Jersey (until very recently) Number One among the states by deaths per capita. It was a disgraceful performance.
WTF is wrong with Monmouth Polls? “Majority of New Jerseyans Support State’s COVID-19 Actions?” Are you serious. King Murphy seized power and killed thousands, including my mom in nursing homes. He forced small businesses to close, most will never return. Closed schools and robbed our children of almost 2 years of education and growth. Depression and suicide are through the roof. But yes, he did such a wonderful job.
Masks don’t work, social distancing doesn’t make a difference for healthy people, school closures were unnecessary, business closures were absolutely unnecessary and devastating. All of this was Murphy’s fault. Murphy and many other clueless ideologically blind ignorant governors like him are absolutely completely guilty of a wreaking some of the worst economic and social distruction New Jersey and the general country has ever seen . The fact that a so-called “majority” According to whatever biased flawed survey that you people are quoting supposedly support this insanity , shows you how stupid and gullible and easily manipulated by propaganda the general population is .
Your news organization is a joke! You’re not journalists in any real sense. You’re just organs of the state. Lap dogs, lackeys, craven sanctimonious hypocrites. Do you regurgitate talking points. You don’t report the news.
You are guilty as well. Of massively miss informing in misleading the public. People have died because you and other news organizations have withheld vital information about early treatments for Covid.
You have parroted the political narrative Of fear that has sent so many people into the depths of depression in his contributed to 100,000 Opioid overdose is, suicides, and alcoholism.
Someday you and others like you will be called to account. Just like Fauci and his ilk who systematically lied to the public to cover up their mistakes at the Wuhan lab