State Sen. Kristin Corrado renewed her call for Gov. Phil Murphy to immediately lift his COVID-testing mandate for unvaccinated teachers and school employees after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that testing healthy students and employees is no longer recommended.
Federal health officials scaled back guidance for quarantining and testing to screen for COVID-19 in settings including schools, a relaxation of pandemic precautions that reflects higher protection from vaccines, treatments and prior infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 11 said it no longer recommends that people quarantine after being exposed to the virus, as long as they don’t feel sick, get tested after five days and wear a high-quality mask around others for 10 days.
North Jersey residents should still isolate themselves from others for at least five days if they test positive, the CDC said. The agency will no longer recommend screening asymptomatic people for the virus in most settings as well.
Corrado Push
Corrado is sponsoring legislation that would remove the requirement for weekly COVID testing for school district employees who are not vaccinated. Two weeks ago, she sent a letter to Governor Murphy urging him to end the mandate before the start of the upcoming school year.
“It’s been clear for some time that forcing healthy teachers and school employees to submit to burdensome and expensive COVID testing was unnecessary,” said Corrado (R-40). “Now that the CDC has changed its guidance, Governor Murphy has absolutely no excuse to continue dragging his feet on lifting his testing mandate. He should do it today.”
COVID-19 cases:
New daily PCR cases: 2,448; Probable Cases: 631
Total Cases: 2,634,282 (2,243,964 PCR cases, 390,318 probable cases)
New Confirmed Deaths: 11 (7 probable deaths, 34,396 total deaths)
Rate of Transmission: 0.91, down from 0.92
Percent Positivity: 18.3% as of Aug. 7; by region, the rate was 18.1% in the North, 19.3% in the Central region and 17.3% in the South
By County:
Bergen County: 239 New Cases, 76 Probable Cases, 3,198 deaths, 336 probable deaths
Essex County: 302 New Cases, 55 Probable Cases, 3,345 deaths, 313 probable deaths
Hudson County: 219 New Cases, 44 Probable Cases, 2,537 total deaths, 221 probable deaths
Morris County: 107 New Cases, 42 Probable Cases, 1,291 deaths, 306 probable deaths
Passaic County: 158 New Cases, 24 Probable Cases, 2,168 deaths, 204 probable deaths
Sussex County: 24 New Cases, 12 Probable Cases, 410 deaths, 97 probable deaths
Warren County: 15 New Cases, 8 Probable Cases, 320 deaths, 28 probable deaths
Hospitals
Hospitalizations: 1,061 (422 North; 344 Central; and 295 South)
Patients in intensive care units: 129
Patients on ventilators: 41
Patients discharged: 239
The state dashboard showed all 71 hospitals in the state reporting
Long-term Care Facilities
Facilities currently reporting one case: 393 (3,054 overall)
Current number of residents: 5,745 (54,327 overall)
Current number of staffers: 6,000 (44,018 overall)
Number of Deaths: 9,494 overall (8,705 reported by facilities,139 staff deaths)
Vaccine
Total number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in New Jersey: 14,690,672 (14,172,258 in-state, plus an additional 511,025 administered out-of-state)
Fully Vaccinated: 7,004,391 (6,797,642 in state and another 207,182 out of state). By county, 738,083 in Bergen County, 610,449 in Essex, 543,264 in Hudson, 394,418 in Morris, 367,681 in Passaic, 94,463 in Sussex, and 62,379 in Warren.
Booster Shots: 4,208,933 (2,325,117 Pfizer, 1,810,261 Moderna and 73,555 Johnson & Johnson)
Today’s GOP doesn’t like mutual sacrifice in the national interest, let alone the concept o public health. They’re cool with epidemics “culling the herd” of fellow Americans they (or their corporate sponsors) deem inferior beings.
Many claim to be “christian” but ignore Jesus’s Sole Commandment to love one another.
Is it any wonder they consider Donald Trump, who claims to be above the Constitution and our laws, and more and more cites Hitler as a role model.
This shouldn’t be a Democrats vs. Republicans issue. If the governor is supposedly following the science then he should modify this moronic mandate accordingly. It is obvious (and proven by science) that both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated are getting Covid, so why only have one group test if you are so worry about everyone’s safety. This was made a political issue long time ago and it’s time to stop!
Covid was over a year ago. The vax failed , along with everything else these craven incompetent fanatics tried. It was 90% politics from the beginning
murphy should be tried for crimes against humanity
Governor Phil Murphy is doing the Correct thing by maintaining Virus Protocols, since this here fiasco ain’t entirely 0ver & we ALL should still practice safety by being vigilant!! AND; In them overwhelming immortal words of Yogy Bearer,” It ain’t 0ver toil the phat lady sings.” Can we all get an Amen here!!//