NJ Spotlight’s coronavirus update for April 29, 2020

 New Jersey today reported an additional 2,481 confirmed COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 116,264.

Statewide, there were 6,289 COVID-19 related hospitalizations as of last night, continuing a steady decrease since mid-April. 1,811 are in critical or intensive care, and 1,327 require ventilators. 

Hospitalization trends varied across the state, with numbers dropping in northern New Jersey and rising in southern New Jersey (chart above). For more in-depth information regarding hospitalizations, please visit our COVID-19 data page.

New Jersey reported an additional 329 deaths, a continued spike after the weekend and bringing the total number of fatalities in the state to 6,770. That is twice the number than in any other state except New York, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
State and federal response

Gov. Phil Murphy today announced an executive order to reopen state parks and allow county parks as well as golf courses to also open, effective at sunrise on Saturday, May 2.Social distancing rules would continue to be mandated.

A second executive order signed by the governor will allow for any petition to place municipal or county initiatives on the ballot to be signed electronically, the same as candidate petitions.

The Murphy administration announced $24 million in state and federal resources for temporary wage increases for the direct support professionals who care for adult individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in group homes and supervised apartments$10.6 million in state funding and $13.4 million in federal matching resources.

NJ Department of Labor will begin notifying recipients of the first round of federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance payments.

Murphy announced a partnership between the state and NJMEP to manufacture face masks and gowns in-state.

NJ Human Services Commissioner Carole Johnson and Children and Families Commissioner Christine Beyer today announced the state will continue to help pay for child care for essential employees as defined in Executive Order 110 through at least the end of May.

The NJ Department of Human Services announced that additional federal funds to many residents who receive food assistance through the state’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).An additional $36 million will be provided to about 214,000 New Jersey households in May.

Related news story and video:

Organ donations in NJ down 65% in April

BY Joanna Gagis, Producer/Correspondent, NJTV News  | April 29, 2020, 3PM EST

Vicki Bernstein has a lung condition called sarcoidosis, along with COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

“Been diagnosed about 18 years now, and the past year or so it’s really gotten much worse. I have a very difficult time obviously breathing, when I’m walking,” she said. “It’s scary when you get to that point where you can’t breathe and you’re like, shouldn’t the oxygen help me. And it’s not always a quick fix.”

About three years ago, Bernstein’s doctors recommended she get on the transplant waiting list for new lungs, but she says she wasn’t ready until a cold landed her in the hospital.

“And that’s when I said, ‘It’s time. I need to get on the list,’” she said. “Then of course, corona came around and it makes things even worse because if they do call you there’s a lot of concerns.”

She’s concerned about undergoing surgery at a time when exposure to coronavirus within a hospital setting is high. But Joe Roth, who heads New Jersey’s organ and tissue procurement organization, has different concerns.

“Through April, we’re down about 65% in terms of donation. Now in a normal time that wouldn’t worry us because it’s hard to forecast anyway during normal times what your donation rates are going to be. But at a time like this where there’s a lot of uncertainty as to how long this is going to string out, it’s of great concern to us that donation’s fallen,” Roth said.

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Climate experts call for ‘dangerous’ Michael Moore film to be taken down

Planet of the Humans, which takes aim at the green movement, is ‘full of misinformation’, says one online library

Oliver Milman @olliemilman reports for The Guardian
Last modified on Tue 28 Apr 2020 14.15 EDT

Michael Moore- Photov by Chriv Pizzello-Invision–AP

A new Michael Moore-produced documentary that takes aim at the supposed hypocrisy of the green movement is “dangerous, misleading and destructive” and should be removed from public viewing, according to an assortment of climate scientists and environmental campaigners.

The film, Planet of the Humans, was released on the eve of Earth Day last week by its producer, Michael Moore, the baseball cap-wearing documentarian known for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Describing itself as a “full-frontal assault on our sacred cows”, the film argues that electric cars and solar energy are unreliable and rely upon fossil fuels to function. It also attacks figures including Al Gore for bolstering corporations that push flawed technologies over real solutions to the climate crisis.Advertisement

Planet of the Humans has provoked a furious reaction from scientists and campaigners, however, who have called for it be taken down. Films for Action, an online library of videos, temporarily took down the film after describing it as “full of misinformation”, though they later reinstated it, saying they did not want accusations of censorship to give the film “more power and mystique than it deserves”. A free version on YouTube has been viewed more than 3m times.

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A letter written by Josh Fox, who made the documentary Gasland, and signed by various scientists and activists, has urged the removal of “shockingly misleading and absurd” film for making false claims about renewable energy. Planet of the Humans “trades in debunked fossil fuel industry talking points” that question the affordability and reliability of solar and wind energy, the letter states, pointing out that these alternatives are now cheaper to run than fossil fuels such as coal.

Michael Mann, a climate scientist and signatory to Fox’s letter, said the film includes “various distortions, half-truths and lies” and that the filmmakers “have done a grave disservice to us and the planet by promoting climate change inactivist tropes and talking points.” The film’s makers did not respond to questions over whether it will be pulled down.

Planet of the Humans has been shown at Moore’s Traverse City film festival, where the producer said it was “perhaps the most urgent film we’ve shown in the 15-year history of our film festival”. Jeff Gibbs, who wrote and directed the film, has suggested that unrestrained economic and population growth should be the target of environmentalists’ efforts rather than technological fixes.

Climate activist Bill McKibben, one of the targets for the film for allegedly being influenced by corporate money and for supporting the burning of biomass such as wood chips for energy, said the characterisations are untrue. McKibben has previously changed his views on biomass energy, which he now sees as being detrimental to climate action, and claims he has “never taken a penny in pay” from any environmental group.

“I am used to ceaseless harassment and attack from the fossil fuel industry, and I’ve done my best to ignore a lifetime of death threats from rightwing extremists,” McKibben said. “It does hurt more to be attacked by others who think of themselves as environmentalists.”

Renewable energy has long been portrayed as expensive and unreliably intermittent by oil and gas companies and their lobby groups, which have spent several decades questioning the veracity of climate science and undermining efforts to radically reduce planet-heating emissions.

In fact, the technology used for wind and solar energy has improved markedly in recent years, while the costs have plummeted. While electric cars often require fossil fuel-generated energy to produce them and provide the electricity to fuel them, research has shown they still emit less greenhouse gas and air pollutants over their lifetime than a standard petrol or diesel car.

Generating all power from renewables will take significant upgrades of grid infrastructure and storage but several researchers have declared the goal feasible, most likely with carbon-capture technology for remaining fossil fuel plants. Scientists say the world must reach net zero emissions by 2050 to head off disastrous global heating, which would likely spur worsening storms, heatwaves, sea level rise and societal unrest.

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The U.S. plans to lend $500 billion to large companies. It won’t require them to preserve jobs or limit executive pay.

The Fed’s coronavirus aid program lacks restrictions Congress placed on companies seeking financial help under other programs.

Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome H. Powell gives a news briefing in March. (Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images)

By Jeff Stein and Peter Whoriskey April 28, 2020 at 12:58 p.m. EDT

A Federal Reserve program expected to begin within weeks will provide hundreds of billions in emergency aid to large American corporations without requiring them to save jobs or limit payments to executives and shareholders.

Under the program, the central bank will buy up to $500 billion in bonds issued by large companies. The companies will use the influx of cash as a financial lifeline but are required to pay it back with interest.

Unlike other portions of the relief for American businesses, however, this aid will be exempt from rules passed by Congress requiring recipients to limit dividends, executive compensation and stock buybacks and does not direct the companies to maintain certain employment levels.

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Critics say the program could allow large companies that take the federal help to reward shareholders and executives without saving any jobs. The program was set up jointly by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

“I am struck that the administration is relying on the good will of the companies receiving this assistance,” said Eswar Prasad, a former official at the International Monetary Fund and economist at Cornell University. “A few months down the road, after the government purchases its debt, the company can turn around and issue a bunch of dividends to shareholders or fire its workers, and there’s no clear path to get it back.”

SBA program reopens with new glitches and new scrutiny after NBA franchise returns loan funds

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin defended the corporate aid program, saying that the lack of restrictions on recipients had been discussed and agreed to by Congress. “This was highly discussed on a bipartisan basis. This was thought through carefully,” he said in an interview with The Washington Post. “What we agreed upon was direct loans would carry the restrictions, and the capital markets transactions would not carry the restrictions.”

Democrats asked for restrictions on how companies can use the money from the central bank’s bond purchases but were rebuffed by the administration during negotiations about the Cares Act, said a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). The spokesman said Democrats won meaningful concessions from the administration on reporting transparency in the final agreement. (Transparency requirements do not apply to the small-business loans, the biggest business aid program rolled out to date.)

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N.J. coronavirus outbreak hits 113,856 cases, with 6,442 deaths. Officials confirm 402 new deaths.

Coronavirus in New Jersey: Update on April 28, 2020

By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

New Jersey’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has risen to at least 6,442 residents as state officials reported another 402 fatalities Tuesday and residents prepare for more weeks of near-lockdown restrictions that have already lasted more than a month.

In all, the Garden State — one of the nation’s coronavirus hotspots — has reported at least 113,856 cases of COVID-19 among its 9 million residents after officials reported another 2,887 on Tuesday.

The 402 new deaths are the most officials have announced in a single day — though Gov. Phil Murphy noted all of fatalities and cases announced Tuesday did not occur in the past day and that weekend lags in reporting may inflate those numbers.

“This is not necessarily a one-day total of 402,” Murphy said during his daily coronavirus press briefing in Trenton. “We expected that more deaths which occurred over the weekend just had yet to be counted.”

Regardless, New Jersey continues to have the second-most deaths and cases among American states — after neighboring New York — as well as a vast economic fallout from the virus.

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Despite the growing numbers, officials have stressed that hospitalizations from the virus continue to drop and that the curve of new cases is leveling off.

As of 10 p.m. Monday, there were 6,478 patients in New Jersey’s 71 hospitals with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases, according to the state Department of Health.

That’s up slightly from the day before but still down 22% since a peak of 8,293 cases on April 14. The slight uptick broke a six-day streak of consecutive declines.

“While we are seeing clear progress in some of these metrics, there is one number which always gives us enormous pause,” Murphy said of the death toll.

Tuesday’s numbers came a day after Murphy unveiled a broad road map outlining the benchmarks New Jersey needs to reach before he can begin gradually lifting the orders he installed five weeks ago for residents to stay home and mandating nonessential businesses to close to fight the virus’ spread.

Murphy has not yet provided a timetable for when the restrictions will be lifted, but he reiterated Tuesday that “we know we are still weeks away from being able to announce the first businesses openings.”

The governor said the goal is to increase social distancing to save lives and not only “bend the curve” of cases, deaths, and hospitalizations but “keep it going down.”

“That bend is happening, but we need to see that literally going down and nosediving,” Murphy added.

A pack of protestors gathered in Trenton on Tuesday to pressure Murphy to lift the restrictions. They chanted: “Open Jersey now!”

Murphy has said officials first need to see a 14-day trend showing drops in numbers, as well as double testing capacity and institute robust contact tracing and plans to isolate the infected.

“Quite simply, people will not want to go out and be participating members in our economy if they are fearful we have not done all that we can to protect them from COVID-19,” he said.

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More than 210,000 New Jersey residents have been tested for coronavirus, and 120,503 have tested negative, officials said. The positivity rate is 42.8%.

The county-by-county breakdown of cases and deaths includes:

  • Bergen County: 15,251 with 1,002 deaths
  • Hudson County: 14,309 with 722 deaths
  • Essex County: 13,190 with 1,090 deaths
  • Union County: 12,188 with 627 deaths
  • Passaic County: 11,755 with 475 deaths
  • Middlesex County: 11,102 with 515 deaths
  • Ocean County: 6,151 with 342 deaths
  • Monmouth County: 5,826 with 305 deaths
  • Morris County: 5,128 with 377 deaths
  • Mercer County: 3,605 with 212 deaths
  • Camden County: 3,285 with 124 deaths
  • Somerset County: 3,278 with 242 deaths
  • Burlington County: 2,543 with 106 deaths
  • Gloucester County: 1,179 with 38 deaths
  • Sussex County: 882 with 97 deaths
  • Atlantic County: 868 with 35 deaths
  • Warren County: 848 with 71 deaths
  • Cumberland County: 659 with 10 deaths
  • Hunterdon County: 573 with 24 deaths
  • Cape May County: 299 with 20 deaths
  • Salem County: 219 with 8 deaths

There are another 718 cases still under review to determine where the person resides.

The total number of cases in the state is cumulative and does not include the likely thousands of people who have recovered from COVID-19, officials said.

It is also difficult to get a complete picture of how much the virus has spread because state-run sites are testing only symptomatic residents, testing is backlogged, and the state is not yet reporting significant daily increases in testing.

But Murphy and health officials have said the number of hospitalizations and deaths are clear barometers for how the state is managing the pandemic.

As of Monday at 10 p.m., 1,809 coronavirus patients hospitalized in New Jersey were in critical care — similar to the day before, officials said. Meanwhile, 1262 of those patients were on ventilators, which Murphy said “continues to trend downward.”

Between 10 p.m. Sunday and the same time Monday, there were 488 new coronavirus patients hospitalized in the state, officials said.. There were also 419 patients discharged — though that number includes deaths.

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New Trump Nuclear Plan Favors Uranium Mining Bordering the Grand Canyon

The administration, seeking to restore America’s “competitive nuclear advantage,” also wants to create a $150 million uranium reserve in the coming decade.

Judy Fahys reports for Inside Climate News

Grand Canyon rafters often make a stop at the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado’s rivers. Credit: Judy Fahys/InsideClimate News
Grand Canyon rafters often make a stop at the confluence of the Little Colorado and Colorado’s rivers. The area is sacred to indigenous people who have inhabited the area for centuries— and below plateaus where uranium companies might be able to mine for uranium under the Trump administration’s plans to revive the U.S. nuclear industry. Credit: Judy Fahys/InsideClimate News

Evergreen forests blanket the Grand Canyon’s less traveled northern plateau, and the perfume of Ponderosa pine drifts down a creekbed to the bottom of the great redrock canyon. Downstream, the strangely blue waters of the Little Colorado River meet the main Colorado, coming from the southern plateau close to sacred places for indigenous people who have lived here for centuries.

Both plateaus are also where mining companies want to unearth uranium. Mining those claims has been barred since 2012, when Congress imposed a 20-year mining ban across 1,000 acres here because past uranium extraction has polluted drinking water and poisoned the air and the ground. Local tribes and environmental groups that sought the temporary ban have been pressing Congress to make the ban permanent.

But in a sweeping plan to revive the domestic uranium mining industry unveiled Thursday, the Trump administration proposed instead to open the scenic and sacred areas once again in the name of economic vitality and national security. Allowing more uranium mining on federal lands is just one of the suggestions that emerged from an eight-month review by the White House Nuclear Fuel Working Group.

So are the creation of a federally funded, $150 million uranium reserve over the next decade, the easing of environmental regulations at mines and processing plants and the global expansion of U.S.-made nuclear technologies, such as the small modular reactors being developed at the Idaho National Laboratory.

Proposals outlined in the Restoring America’s Competitive Nuclear Advantage report quickly triggered criticism. Some environmentalists say that the administration shouldn’t propose using taxpayer funds during a pandemic to bail out a dirty, uncompetitive industry that’s largely owned by foreign companies. They also question why more isn’t being done to support existing nuclear plants that generate more than one-third of the nation’s carbon-free electricity.

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