EnviroPolitics Blog

Coronavirus in New Jersey: Update on August 14, 2020

By Brent Johnson for NJ.com

As Gov. Phil Murphy announced the state will have a mostly mail-in November election because of the pandemic.

New Jersey on Friday reported 10 more deaths attributed to the coronavirus — half of those occurring this week — and 585 new cases.

That marks the second straight day the state has reported more than 500 new cases, though its transmission rate held steady again below the critical benchmark showing the outbreak is shrinking.

“Our numbers generally look very good,” Murphy said Friday afternoon during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “(But) with all due respect to those who think we can just flip a light switch and get back to everything as normal, we have had 3,281 positive tests come back in the past seven days in the state of New Jersey.”

The Garden State’s death toll from COVID-19 now stands at 15,903 fatalities — 14,064 confirmed and 1,839 considered probable — in more than five months since the first case was reported March 4.

The state has announced 187,164 positive tests since the outbreak began out of more than 2.4 million tests administered in the state so far.

Of the 10 newly reported deaths, one is from Aug. 12 and four from Aug. 11, while the rest occurred from July 21 to Aug. 8 and have just recently been confirmed, Murphy said as announced the new figures at his latest coronavirus press briefing in Trenton.

The state reported its latest transmission rate is 0.92, the same mark as reported Wednesday and Thursday. The number has remained below the key mark of 1 this week after officials announced Aug. 2 the number had spiked to a four-month high of 1.49.

“Want to drive that lower, but that is under 1,” Murphy said.

Any number above 1 means each newly infected person is spreading the virus to at least one other person, on average. Anything below 1 means the outbreak is shrinking. The rate had been below 1 for weeks during the strictest parts of New Jersey’s coronavirus lockdowns but had fluctuated above and below 1 in July as the state took more reopening steps.

The state’s daily positivity rate — the percentage of residents who test positive in one day — was 1.63% on Monday, the date with the most recent available data.

Murphy called that a “good number” and “almost no state in the nation” can “match that.”

Friday marks the 35th straight day New Jersey — an early coronavirus hotspot — has reported fewer than 50 new deaths and the 14th straight day it has reported fewer than 15.

But state officials have warned about upticks in cases in recent days. On Thursday, New Jersey reported 699 new cases, the highest one-day total in cases so far this month and only the second time since June 6 that the state reported more than 600 new cases.

“We’re watching this like a hawk,” Murphy said Friday morning during an interview with CNBC. “I don’t like that number. But the fact of matter is: 98% of folks getting tests are negative. So please, God, it stays that way.”

The state’s daily numbers are also well below their peaks in April, when it was routine for the state to announce hundreds of new fatalities and thousands of new positive tests a day.

Still, Murphy said during his briefing that “we cannot stop with our social distancing“ or “wearing our face coverings.“

”We can’t be going to house parties or standing among mask-less crowds outside a bar,” he added. “We have to stick with the things we’ve been doing — things that are saving lives, including our own.”

HOSPITALIZATIONS

There were 514 patients being treated for confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Thursday night. That’s 31 fewer patients than the night before.

Of those, 278 tested positive, while 236 were considered under investigation while awaiting test results.

Meanwhile, 91 were in critical or intensive care (12 fewer than the night before) and 40 were on ventilators (12 more than the night before).

There were 47 coronavirus patients discharged from the state’s hospitals Thursday, according to the state’s tracking website.

New Jersey’s hospitalizations have declined steadily over the last few months after peaking at more than 8,000 in mid-April.

ELECTION CHANGE

Murphy on Friday announced that the Nov. 3 elections in New Jersey — including the 2020 presidential race — will be mostly mail-in to protect the state against the virus.

All of the state’s more than 6 million active registered voters will receive vote-by-mail ballots, though there will be limited in-person polling locations across the state.

“As much as we enjoy the time-honored traditions of joining our neighbors on line to cast our ballots on Election Day, and as much as we are energized by seeking packed polling places, we must recognize that this is not a regular election year” Murphy said. “We can say that in more ways than one, but it certainly matters in terms of how we go about ensuring a free and open election in the face of this ongoing pandemic.”

THE LATEST ON SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES REOPENING

Murphy on Wednesday announced New Jersey schools that meet certain criteria will be allowed to start the academic year with no in-person classes because of the pandemic. Previously, all districts were required to offer at least some in-person classes.

The governor stressed that the goal is for as many districts to reopen with in-person learning as possible.

New Jersey remains in Stage 2 of its plan to gradually lift coronavirus restrictions that Murphy ordered in March to fight the spread of COVID-19. Gyms, movie theaters and indoor dining sections of bars and restaurants remain closed until further notice.

That’s even though the state’s economy continues to suffer during the pandemic. Nearly 1.5 million workers in the state have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March, though claims reached a five-month low last week.

Murphy said Friday the state is “trying to find a way to get to both indoor dining and get gyms open.”

“I can’t tell you when or how,” he said. “My guess is we’re gonna need to continue to see good numbers.”

He also stressed there will be capacity limits when that happens.

Meanwhile, the state is calling on travelers from 33 states and territories — including residents returning home — to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in New Jersey.

COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS

Atlantic County: 3,535 cases (12 new), 237 confirmed deaths (15 probable)

Bergen County: 21,058 cases (45 new), 1,787 confirmed deaths (248 probable)

Burlington County: 6,108 cases (15 new), 435 confirmed deaths (39 probable)

Camden County: 8,733 cases (45 new), 525 confirmed deaths (55 probable)

Cape May County: 846 cases (5 new), 82 confirmed deaths (6 probable)

Cumberland County: 3,396 cases (10 new), 146 confirmed deaths (12 probable)

Essex County: 19,870 cases (18 new), 1,876 confirmed deaths (234 probable)

Gloucester County: 3,368 cases (20 new), 207 confirmed deaths (7 probable)

Hudson County: 19,792 cases (44 new), 1,341 confirmed deaths (167 probable)

Hunterdon County: 1,154 cases (3 new), 70 confirmed deaths (54 probable)

Mercer County: 8,169 cases (5 new), 583 confirmed deaths (39 probable)

Middlesex County: 18,045 cases (29 new), 1,206 confirmed deaths (205 probable)

Monmouth County: 10,347 cases (27 new), 759 confirmed deaths (97 probable)

Morris County: 7,315 cases (11 new), 682 confirmed deaths (147 probable)

Ocean County: 10,708 cases (39 new), 953 confirmed deaths (67 probable)

Passaic County: 17,858 cases (58 new), 1,095 confirmed deaths (147 probable)

Salem County: 919 cases (7 new), 81 confirmed deaths (6 probable)

Somerset County: 5,291 cases (9 new), 489 confirmed deaths (75 probable)

Sussex County: 1,344 cases (1 new), 161 confirmed deaths (37 probable)

Union County: 16,827 cases (16 new), 1,181 confirmed deaths (168 probable)

Warren County: 1,355 cases (3 new), 158 confirmed deaths (14 probable)

There are another 1,001 positive cases that remain under investigation, with the patients’ home counties not

About half of the state’s deaths — at least 7,011 — have been of residents or staff members at the state’s nursing homes and longterm care centers.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the state is cumulative and does not reflect the thousands of residents who have recovered. More than 33,200 New Jersey residents have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.

As of early Friday afternoon, there have been more than 20.98 million positive tests for COVID-19 across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 760,600 have died, while more than 13 million have recovered.

There have been more than 167,300 deaths in the United States, by far the most in the world.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.

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Greenland ice sheet claims life of renowned climate scientist

The climate science community is mourning the loss of a pioneering climate scientist and glaciologist, Konrad Steffen. Koni, as he was known to his friends and colleagues, apparently fell to his death in a deep opening in the ice called a crevasse on Saturday while doing research in Western Greenland.

BY JEFF BERARDELLI, CBS NEWS

Konrad “Koni” Steffen, a leading climate scientist who documented melting ice sheets, at the Swiss Camp research site in Greenland in 2007. REUTERS

With nearly 15,000 academic citations to his name, Steffen, who was 68 years old, dedicated his life to studying the rapidly melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Ironically, it was the perils created by melting around Swiss Camp in Greenland — a research outpost he founded in 1990 — that claimed his life.

Jason Box, a well-known ice climatologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, had spent many years working alongside Steffen and was with him right before he disappeared.

Box says the snowy, windy weather at the time was disorienting. He says Steffen “ultimately went beyond the safety perimeter in low visibility, windy conditions. Koni fell into a water based crevasse while the rest of us were working nearby, unaware. The last thing he said to us was he was going to look at data.”

The team organized a lengthy search and eventually found evidence in the thin ice. “[We] found a 2.5 meter long busted through hole in the 3 cm thick floor of the crevasse 8 meters down,” Box wrote in a message thread on Twitter. “I am told one is not buoyant in such cold freshwater. Since he was not found, I think he remains 8 meters down in the water.”

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New advisory group to focus on sea rise and salt threat to drinking water from the Delaware River

Too soon to tell if Delaware River Basin Commission will heed advisory committee, but finding effective solutions to climate change remains beyond abilities of any one agency

JON HURDLE reports for NJ Spotlight, AUGUST 13, 2020

An expert panel charged with advising the Delaware River Basin’s top water regulator on how to deal with climate change met for the first time in early August with high hopes but apparently little clear idea of what it will recommend or how its advice may be acted on.

The Delaware River Basin Commission’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change was set up in response to rising concerns about the security of water supplies for the approximately 15 million people who rely on the basin. Driving the decision: the scary combination of bigger floods, droughts, storms and rising seas that have been forecast to come with climate change. Based on the latest evidence, however, they’re already here.

The panel’s first meeting on Aug. 6 took place as Tropical Storm Isaias pounded the region with wind and rain. It came just a week after New Jersey completed a month that, at an average temperature of 78.8 degrees, was the hottest since records began in 1895.

How much power does panel have?

Whether the all-volunteer 18-member panel of government officials, academics and corporate and nonprofit scientists will produce recommendations that protect the basin’s water supplies from the worst effects of climate change was unclear from the first meeting. And even if it advises bold measures, it’s far from assured that the DRBC will reform its regulations in a way that some critics say is necessary to protect water supplies, or even that it will agree to act on the panel’s work — which is purely advisory.

Still, the DRBC is seeking the panel’s advice in the first instance on sea-level rise, which threatens to push salt water into drinking-water intakes for part of South Jersey and Philadelphia in the tidal section of the Delaware River. Although the river’s “salt front” is still well downstream from the intakes, forecasts for 2 feet or more of sea-level rise by the middle of the century are forcing water regulators to take a close look at how the intakes could be protected.

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A possible solution is the release of water from a reservoir in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley when the river is low, adding to existing water releases that keep downstream pressure from fresh water on the salt front during low-flow periods, ensuring that salt water stays well away from the intakes.

To make a better decision on how to respond to a rising salt front, the DRBC will be seeking the panel’s advice on the extent of future sea-level rise, given differences between forecasts by academic and other experts, said Kristen Kavanagh, the DRBC’s deputy executive director and its liaison with the new committee.

“We will be asking the committee: Is this the right range of sea-level rise?” she said, in an interview with NJ Spotlight. “It does have a significant effect on the salt front, and that influences flows.”

The ‘challenge’ of finding funding

The DRBC’s ability to act on the panel’s recommendations will be determined by funding, which Kavanagh called “a challenge this year,” and which has been limited since the 1990s by incomplete contributions by some of the four member states — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and Delaware — and especially by the federal government.

“The formation of the committee did not affect our funding,” Kavanagh said. “But to have all the brain power in one place and to have their willingness to volunteer their time, it’s a think tank to help us think beyond our brain power in terms of what we could be doing.”

The committee is scheduled to meet just twice a year but is considering meeting more often, Kavanagh said.

Committee chairman Howard Neukrug, the former head of Philadelphia Water Department, said his vision for the panel is to take its combined expertise and produce an analysis of how to protect drinking water and prevent flooding in the basin for the rest of the century. “Clearly, the future requires action now,” he said.

As the regional water authority, the DRBC is the right entity to set up a panel on the biggest threat to water supply, but solutions to related problems such as land management go beyond its authority, Neukrug said. For example, some limits on development are likely to be needed to ensure the reuse or conservation of water, and the DRBC has no authority over those. “It’s not something that you can solve just by changing the operations at the reservoir,” he said.

Solutions beyond a single agency

The scale and complexity of the problem means that the DRBC or any other agency can’t find solutions on its own, said Neukrug, who is now the director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Water Center at Penn.

“They should be the ones that are leading this, and they should be ones that also recognize that the future is all about leveraging different sources of funding for different ideas for different communities,” he said. “You can’t expect any one agency or any one state to be able to solve all these problems.”

For now, the panel has the right combination of expertise, Neukrug said, but it’s lacking representatives from the poor communities in cities like Camden, Philadelphia and Chester, Pennsylvania, that are disproportionately affected by climate change. Over time, they should be added to the panel, he said.

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Mask as I say, not as I do

From today’s BillyPenn

Chester County, Pa. sheriff’s deputies swept into Philadelphia earlier this week to arrest an 88-year-old woman who missed a court appearance due to coronavirus symptoms. The judge who signed the bench warrant has not been wearing a mask in his courtroom, according to an attorney for the woman. On arrival at her South Broad home, officers determined that the woman, embroiled in a 13-year property rights case, was indeed too frail to detain.

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One Philly neighborhood is so fed up with uncollected trash and recycling that they’re renting their own trucks

By Laura McCrystal, Philadelphia Inquirer Updated: August 13, 2020- 3:03 PM

Philly says it’s catching up on trash and recycling. But one neighborhood is fed up and renting trucks. — **JESSICA GRIFFIN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER**

Philadelphia sanitation crews dedicated Monday to picking up recycling that hadn’t been collected for weeks, and city officials said this week that they are mostly caught up.

But that’s not the case in every neighborhood. In parts of South Philadelphia, recycling hasn’t been collected for four weeks. So the West Passyunk Neighbors Association is taking matters into its own hands. The group will rent two trucks from Home Depot this weekend to get some of that recycling to one of the city’s sanitation centers.

James Gitto, president of the association, said volunteers will pick up recycling for residents who are elderly, disabled, or don’t have their own cars.

“Our goal is not to clean up the neighborhood in any kind of large-scale way,” he said. “We’re really focused on people who are not able to take care of the trash.

Crystal Jacobs, a spokesperson for the Streets Department, said Wednesday that “crews are caught up on the majority of recycling that sat prolonged at the curb from previous weeks.”

Mayor Jim Kenney has said that crews are “back up to speed” with collection. During a news conference Thursday, he said the city has already hired 30 temporary workers to join sanitation crews and will likely hire a total of 150 people.

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Massachusetts representatives pass climate change legislation

Legislation includes criteria in statute that defines environmental justice populations

State House | building, Boston, Massachusetts, United States ...

From Wicked Local Waltham

As the effects of the COVID-19 health crisis continues to evolve, State Reps. Thomas Stanley and John Lawn helped pass legislation building on the Statehouse’s continued commitment to “address the effects of climate change” by requiring the commonwealth to achieve net-zero statewide greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

The legislation, An Act Creating a 2050 Roadmap to a Clean and Thriving Commonwealth (H. 4933), establishes the criteria in statute that define environmental justice populations. The legislation also increases support for clean energy workforce development programs, improves access to renewable energy and energy efficiency programs for low-income communities and requires the state to increase its use of renewable resources for its electricity needs.

“This comprehensive climate legislation puts the commonwealth well on the way to not only doing that but also puts us on the path to a cleaner, safer state,” said Stanely. “The bill also includes historic environmental justice components, which will protect some of our most important communities from being neglected by harmful projects.”

“Despite the ongoing public health and economic hardships relating to the COVID-19 pandemic, the house is committed [to] maintaining Massachusetts’ nation-leading clean energy and climate policies,” said Lawn. “The legislation builds on the house’s long-standing commitment to effective and lasting climate change policy and fulfills Speaker DeLeo’s and the house’s January pledge to pass 2050 greenhouse gas emissions net zero limits during the 2019-20 legislative session.”

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