April 25, 2020 – Despite the increase in the number of confirmed cases, however, Governor Phil Murphy says,“the curve is still flat.”
During his briefing on Friday, Governor Murphy announced that New Jersey now has a total of 102,196 confirmed cases of COVID-19. A total of 185,329 tests have been conducted in major laboratories, including Bioreference Laboratory, Genesis Laboratory Management, Hackensack University Medical Center, LabCorp, Medical Diagnostics, NY State, NJPHEL, and Quest Diagnostics.
A total of 532 tests are still waiting for results.
As of 1 p.m. of April 24, 2020, the death toll in New Jersey has reached 5,617.
Bergen County has the most number of positive test results at 14,363, while Essex County has the highest number of deaths at 975.
Before his scheduled daily briefing, Governor Murphy said he was in a video call with Vice President Mike Pence and other governors.
“I reiterated our need for direct cash assistance. I will be persistent and stay at this because, if we don’t get direct cash assistance, we will have to make awful choices,” Governor Murphy said in his Facebook post.
Governor Murphy also said that he had a “productive call” with the U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, and he had the opportunity to discuss the State’s right to claim from the CARES Act. The Governor said he has not yet reached the goal, but it was “a good step in the right direction.”
Meanwhile, some sliver of sunshine came from New Jersey Commissioner of Health Judith Persichilli,who reported that as of Friday, there had been a 17 percent decrease from the high water mark of hospitalized patients and almost 13 percent decrease in the number of patients on ventilators in ICUs.
Commissioner Persichilli also reminds the public, “Do not ingest or inject disinfectants.”
This came after President Donald Trump suggested that cleaners could be studied as a possible cure to fight Coronavirus.