Murphy Meets with Trump, Seeks Financial Support

By Jim Pytell, Assistant Editor On Apr 30, 2020

Gov. Phil Murphy today met with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss New Jersey’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies and the road to reopen its economy. The governor thanked the Trump administration for its help so far, which has included an influx of ventilators and the construction of field hospitals, but he also made clear the state’s need for direct federal financial support.

“This money is not a bailout,” Murphy said. “It is about funding our response and keeping our police, firefighters, EMTs, educators and other frontline workers on the job. We need the federal government as a partner in our restart and recovery, just as it has been in our mitigation [efforts].”

Upon returning to New Jersey, at today’s daily COVID-19 press briefing, Murphy announced that the state will be receiving 550,000 new test kits and 750,000 swabs from the Trump administration.

Additionally, 358 nursing homes in the state will receive a direct shipment of personal protective equipment (PPE), including 220,000 masks, 19,000 goggles, 200,000 gowns and 1 million gloves.

New Jersey remains the second most impacted state from the coronavirus, now with 118,652 total confirmed cases, after 2,633 new cases were reported overnight. And, after 460 new deaths, the total number of fatalities in the state due to the virus sits at 7,228.

Reuse of N95 Respirators 

Further expanding New Jersey’s PPE capacity, the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management, with assistance from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and The Defense Logistics Agency, has secured the Battelle Critical Care Decontamination System (CCDS), which is designed to decontaminate and preserve N95 respirators.

The system is designed to work on N95 respirators to decontaminate biological contaminants including novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), making them available for reuse by healthcare workers and first responders. The Battelle CCDS is located in Edison and can service the entire state.

The Battelle system can decontaminate up to 80,000 N95 respirators a day. Using the system, each N95 respirator can be decontaminated up to 20 times and still maintain sufficient filtration performance.

New Jersey Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said, “Healthcare providers and agencies throughout the state can utilize this system at no cost and help protect their limited resources.”

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