New Jersey Virus Fatalities Top 8,200 as Hospitalizations Drop

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey's death toll from the Covid-19 outbreak surpassed 8,200 as hospitalizations continued to fall.

In all, 5,328 patients were hospitalized, a decrease of nearly 3,000 from about three weeks ago, Governor Phil Murphy said at his Tuesday news conference in Trenton. Of those, 1,534 were in intensive- or critical-care units, with 1,169 on ventilators -- and both those figures are dropping, he said.

Referring to residents calling for reopening the state, Murphy said, “There's no magic wand. There's no recipe.” Over 24 hours, 385 people were hospitalized, he said -- a sign that social distancing must continue. “We still have people getting sick.”

Murphy said the state received word of “greater flexibility” to spend $2.4 billion from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. About $467 million will go to schools.

The federal guidance, Murphy said, was “a win for our property-tax payers.”

About half of New Jersey's 8,244 Covid-19 deaths have occurred in nursing homes, the governor said.

Attorney General Gurbir Grewal asked for people to share firsthand knowledge of misconduct at long-term care facilities at covid19.nj.gov/LTC. An investigation begun by his office April 16 was prompted by reports of improperly stored bodies and scarce personal-protective equipment.

“For many of these facilities, this was the equivalent of a 500-year flood,” Grewal said. Still, he said, the state will examine whether some operators “put profits over patients,” lied to investigators or otherwise acted improperly as the virus spread.

The state will start granting temporary emergency licenses to recent graduates of nursing, physician assistant, pharmacy and respiratory-care programs, Murphy said. New Jersey has issued 18,000 licenses to out-of-state health-care workers, Grewal said.