New Jersey may be on the other side of the Hudson River from New York, but "it's in the same boat," Gov. Phil Murphy said Thursday while calling for more beds and equipment for the growing fight against coronavirus.
"We're in a tough spot but we expected it," Murphy said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "We had 4,400 positive tests as of yesterday (and) 62 precious lives have been lost. We're aggressively testing. We need, really, more beds."
The federal government is working with the state "quite well" for beds, the governor added, but as far as personal protective equipment and other items, "we're way short there."
"We're trying to expand our heroic healthcare worker workforce, all of that at the same time trying to do everything we can to break the back of this curve, flatten it," said Murphy.
New Jersey now has the second-most cases of coronavirus across the United States, and Murphy said his state is "turning over every stone it can" to get ahold of equipment and ventilators.
"We got two allocations out of the federal stockpile," said Murphy. "We need more. That's probably our No. 1 priority right now. We're way short. We have not seen our surge. All the numbers are going up, as we expected, by the way."
Meanwhile, "a significant amount" of residents and employees at a nursing home in Woodbridge, New Jersey, have contracted coronavirus, said Murphy, and the state is in the process of shutting it down and moving people into protective units elsewhere.
"We've got about 375 longterm care, nursing facilities in the state," he said, noting that their infection numbers are climbing and probably will go higher.
Murphy added that he would be the "happiest guy" in his state and in the United States if President Donald Trump's call to reopen the nation for business by Easter happens, but he doesn't think it will.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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