Coronavirus and Economic Recovery Update – June 12, 2020

Gov. Murphy says businesses, employees and customers can make a pact. What if employees feel unsafe at work? Survival guide to working from home with spouse and kids.

By the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce

An intelligence briefing for N.J. Chamber of Commerce members on how coronavirus is impacting your business, the economy and health in New Jersey. 

Gov. Murphy Says Business, Employees and Customers Can Make a Pact – When New Jersey fully reopens, there will be standards to keep workers and customers safe, Gov. Murphy announced. They will be known as the “One Jersey Pledge,” which Murphy called “a pact between businesses and consumers, and employers and their employees.” (nj.com) 

The Fine Print – For details on the “One Jersey Pledge” and links to signs that can be posted in workplaces and stores. 

What if Employees Feel Unsafe at Work? – What if workers do not feel that their employers are making an effort to guard against COVID-19? Under guidelines that the state’s Labor Department unveiled, those workers could quit or refuse work and still qualify for unemployment benefits. But that determination is not easily met. (NJBIZ) 

Survival Guide to Working from Home with Spouse and Kids – Working from home every day while your spouse and children are also at home can be a serious test. We asked N.J. Chamber of Commerce members how they are holding up while they are holed up in their homes during the pandemic. It seems the secret sauce is the ability to make the best of the situation, respect your partner’s personal space and take the occasional video conference call from your daughter who is down the hall in the playroom. (NJ ChamberEdge)




Buy From New Jersey Businesses – To promote the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce’s ‘Buy NJ’ campaign, put this ‘postcard’ on your website and share it on social media with the hashtags #BuyNJ and #BuyLocalNJ.

Get Counted – New Jersey residents can respond to the 2020 Census to ensure the state gets its fair share of federal funding. The Census provides valuable data for businesses, including population trends, growth projections and demographic information. Spread the word! Respond to the Census.

N.J. Coronavirus Cases – New Jersey Residents (Source: N.J. Health Department)
Total Deaths Reported: 12,443, up from 12,377 yesterday.
Total Positive COVID-19 Tests Reported: 165,816, up from 165,346 yesterday.
For data on hospitalizations and discharges, click here.

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Trump boasts oil is “back in business.” Others are more cautious

President Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion in Dallas on Thursday. (Alex Brandon/AP)

By Dino Grandoni with Paulina Firozi Washington Post

President Trump painted a rosy picture of the petroleum industry’s recovery from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic — one that clashes with the pain a lot of drillers still feel on the ground.

Speaking at a roundtable discussion in Dallas yesterday, Trump praised his administration’s efforts to aid the ailing oil industry hit this year by a one-two punch — a severe downturn in domestic energy demand amid stay-at-home orders and a production war between Saudi Arabia and Russia. 

“I think we’ve done a fantastic job with bringing back the oil in a rapid fashion,” Trump said at the event Thursday in the heart of oil country. “That looked pretty bad. That looked pretty bad.”

The price of oil indeed has rallied from its virus-driven lows. But U.S. producers are hardly out of the woods yet. 
The price of West Texas Intermediate oil, a U.S. benchmark, briefly fell below $0 in April as Americans drastically curtailed flying and driving to stop the spread of the virus. 

Now, as shutdown orders are loosened across the country, the price has jumped back up to around $35 a barrel — a sign of optimism for Trump.

“There’s never been a thing like that ever,” Trump said of oil prices dipping into negative territory. “And now I see that it’s getting close to $40 a barrel, and you’re back in business, and we got it done fast.”

Part of what is propping up oil prices is an agreement between OPEC, Russia and a handful of other oil-producing nations to curb production through much of the spring and summer in response to the pandemic.

It was Trump who helped bring Russian leader Vladimir Putin and King Salman of Saudi Arabia to the negotiating table. “We got Russia together with Saudi Arabia and they cut production,” Trump said Thursday. 

But a full recovery is still be a ways off.

Many major oil companies have said they will cut back on investment through the rest of the year as they prepare to weather the economic recession triggered by the virus. ExxonMobil, for one — based just outside Dallas — is cutting its capital spending from $33 billion to $23 billion in response to the outbreak.

A handful of other, smaller firms, including Whiting Petroleum and Diamond Offshore Drilling, have declared bankruptcy.
All told, the virus-driven downturn has slashed the value of the U.S. oil and gas sector by more than a third since the start of the year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices, back when oil was trading for more than $60 a barrel.

Looking forward, analysts at Goldman Sachs say despite the recent rally, oil prices will go down before they go back up. 
Oil producers have built up an estimated surplus of 1 billion barrels, the investment bank said, as economic activity has stalled during the outbreak.

That oil glut, plus the continued reluctance to travel, puts downward pressure on oil prices, which Goldman Sachs estimates are due for a 15 to 20 percent “correction.”

“This is not to dismiss the current recovery or not acknowledge that it is progressing ahead of expectations,” the bank wrote in a note Monday, “but rather note that prices are ahead of the rebalancing where oil still faces a billion barrel inventory overhang.” 

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N.J. coronavirus deaths increase to 12,443, with 165,816 total cases 100 days after outbreak began

By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

New Jersey has reported 12,443 known deaths attributed to the coronavirus, with 165,816 known cases, in the 100 days since the first case in the state was announced, though the state is now four days away from its second stage of reopening from nearly three months of lockdown.

Gov. Phil Murphy on Thursday announced 70 new deaths related to COVID-19 and 539 new positive tests in the state of 9 million residents.

But officials say New Jersey’s overall trends — including daily new deaths, cases, and hospitalizations — have fallen significantly since the peak in April. Wednesday marked the 13th consecutive day the state announced fewer than 1,000 new cases and the eighth straight day it reported fewer than 2,000 coronavirus hospitalizations.

“For 100 days, we have asked you to take extraordinary steps,” Murphy said during his daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “We have asked you to take to heart the need for social distancing. We have asked you to forego so many of the little things that we once could simply take for granted. We have asked you to wear face coverings when out in public. We have asked for your patience as an unprecedented pandemic engulfed our state.”

“We still have some numbers we need to keep driving down,” he added. “But I am confident of our odds.”

New Jersey hit a one-day high in deaths — 460 — on April 30 and a one-day high in new cases — 4,391 — on April 16.

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Cuomo approves phase three for 5 New York regions

Gov. Andrew Cuomo address the issue of police accountability while delivering his daily coronavirus briefing on Monday June 1, 2020, during a press conference in New York. (Office of the Governor)

By Chris Bragg Times Union – Updated: June 11, 2020 1:36 p.m.

ALBANY — Five regions in New York can begin phase three of reopening on Friday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced Thursday.

The five regions are Central New York, the Finger Lakes, North Country, Southern Tier and Mohawk Valley. The Capital Region is still only cleared for phase two.

Phase three will allow both outdoor and indoor dining in restaurants, as well as the reopening of personal care services including nail salons and spas.

Even in the third phase, there will still be restrictions including requirements that patrons stay six feet apart, wear masks at restaurants unless seated, and that establishments not exceed 50% capacity.

Cuomo said businesses could face penalties if they break the rules, including losing their license to operate. He argued that states that had not imposed similar restrictions are seeing spikes in COVID-19 cases, with 14 recording their highest figures to date.

“It’s not one state, it is the pattern, my friends,” Cuomo said. “We are the exception and an outrageous exception … because our reopening is different from their reopening.”

Cuomo also said that this summer, decisions on the reopenings of public pools and playgrounds would be at the discretion of local governments. Rensselaer County Executive Steve McLaughlin said Wednesday his county would allow opening public pools if they go through the normal county permitting process.

Cuomo also commented again Thursday on the alleged killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, which has sparked nationwide protests, saying he is not in favor of piecemeal “one-off” bills, including a proposal by state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi to ban police from using tear gas to disburse unruly crowds.

“We have to be smarter about this and more comprehensive,” Cuomo said. “I don’t think this is about any one small reform.”

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Planning a Coronavirus reopening party?

Before you send the invites, consider what resulted from a Memorial Day party in Cape May

DAVID CRUZ, NJTV NEWS  JUNE 11, 2020

Whether Gov. Phil Murphy is responding to political pressure or, as he says, letting the data dictate dates, more of New Jersey is becoming more accessible to more of New Jersey’s people. But that new openness comes with a risk.

In almost two dozen instances across the country, states have reported an uptick in cases of COVID-19 after easing restrictions, from Florida to Washington state. Epidemiologist Stephanie Silvera of Montclair State University explains how that happens: “All you need is one person who’s sick who can now quickly spread it to create this cluster of cases,” she said.

And that’s exactly what happened in South Jersey. You may have heard about a cluster of cases — more than a dozen at this point — in Bucks County, Pennsylvania that were traced to a house party in Cape May County, about 100 miles away.

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David Damsker runs the health department in Bucks County. “We noticed pretty early. We had one particular day on Saturday where we had a lot of people from the same area of Bucks County that were all younger. And we started making some phone calls. We’re asking them and a few people mentioned being in New Jersey over Memorial Day weekend,” Damsker said.

Indoors, at a party, with food and drinks.

“So when we started making the other phone calls, we then started asking about that specifically and we started getting more people with the same exact experience, so we knew right there we had a source area for cases,” he said.

An optimist might say, “Hey, that’s some good contact tracing there,’” but someone else might say, “Hey, this is why you can’t just swing the doors open to the state.” Damsker notes that nationally, only one-third of positive cases have actually been traced.

Silvera says the governor’s message Tuesday was not “we’re out of the woods.”

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Trenton Water Works replaced more than 500 lead service lines

Trenton Water Works
The Trenton water filtration plant seen from above. Photo by Michael Walker – Trenton Water Works

By The Trentonian staff

TRENTON — Trenton Water Works announced that its Lead Service Line Replacement Program (LSLRP) has replaced more than 500 lead-service lines since the construction phase of the capital program started in February 2020.

“We have two contractors, South State and Spinello Companies Inc., using a total of five crews to do lead-service replacements in Trenton, Hamilton, Ewing and Lawrence,” said David C. Smith, Acting Director of the city’s Department of Water and Sewer, which operates Trenton Water Works, serving 63,000 customers in a five-municipality service area. “Although we’ve had to reduce our operations because of COVID-19, we have continued the removal of lead services from our water-distribution system.”

TWW’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program is designed to help homeowners replace service lines made from dangerous lead that are on their private properties for a cost of $1,000, which can be paid in installments once the water utility starts invoicing next year. TWW officials are working with state government and other government entities to make the program free and mandatory. A private property’s water-service line runs from the shutoff valve in the street, called the curb box, to the water meter in the home. It takes approximately eight hours to replace a typical lead service.

TWW is spending $24 million, sourced in part from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank (I-Bank), an independent state financing authority, for the first phase of the LSLRP, which will remove 4,300 lead services by June 2021. TWW is working to remove all lead services from its system over the next five years through its $405 million, six-year capital plan, which also involves the construction of a decentralized water-storage system, permanently retiring the 100-million-gallon Pennington Avenue Reservoir in Trenton.-

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TWW estimates some 37,000 lead services in its inventory, although that number is likely to be adjusted downward as more data from ongoing material survey teams becomes available. There are 17,463 in Trenton, 11,618 in Hamilton Township, 5,236 in Ewing Township, and 2,383 in Lawrence Township. Hopewell Township has no lead services because its housing stock is newer than its neighbors.

Homeowners can still sign up online for TWW’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program at www.twwleadprogram.com. Questions concerning program details can be answered by calling TWW’s Lead Service Line Replacement Program hotline at (609) 989-3600.

“While our COVID-19 response temporarily suspended lead-service replacements for homeowners, our contractors will resume full operations in the next two-to-three weeks. Contractors will then contact homeowners whose replacements were delayed to reschedule for a convenient time. Please be patient as we completely reactivate our lead-service work,” said Smith.

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