When Will NJ Hit Stage 2 Reopening? It's All About The Testing

NEW JERSEY - Gov. Phil Murphy has been lifting his coronavirus restrictions over the last several weeks, but says he wants more data before moving the Garden State to "stage two."

So he's asking that residents get tested, and he gave some hints that he's ready to announce more reopenings as early as Friday because of the progress New Jersey has made in diagnosing and containing the virus. Read more: Gov. Murphy: 'Hard Dates' For NJ Coronavirus Reopening (UPDATE)

"Every resident in every community has a role to play in our restart and recovery," Murphy said at a news conference this week. "And every resident that gets tested sends a strong message to their neighbors that they are ready to be a part of a bright future for our state."

Murphy had set a goal of 20,000 tests per day by the end of May, a goal that was met last week. By meeting that goal, New Jersey could find itself moving to stage two as early as this week.

That stage would mean allowing work activities at physical locations if they adhere to safeguarding and modification guidelines.

Phased-in businesses may include:

• Expanded child care, with capacity limitations
• Opening summer schools and summer camps, with capacity limitations
• Expanded retail
• Restaurants with outdoor seating
• Limited personal care
• Indoor dining with significantly reduced capacity
• Museums with significantly reduced capacity
• Libraries with significantly reduced capacity

In stage two, all workers who can work from home continue to do so.

"The more people that do get tested the stronger our data becomes and the stronger our data becomes the stronger our confidence will become that we can take the next steps in responsibly restarting our economy and getting our recovery underway," Murphy said.

Murphy did say that New Jersey's numbers backslid slightly on Thursday, noting that the rate of new hospitalizations ticked up slightly. Read more: Gov. Murphy: NJ Backslides Slightly In Coronavirus Outbreak

But Murphy also said that New Jersey is making progress to the point that people may be better able to "trust" that they'll be safe to get a haircut or send their kids to daycare.

"Without this trust there can be no restart or recovery," he said. "No one is going to want to go to a restaurant or a store or the gym or to the beach or a graduation if they don't have confidence that they can safely do so."

Murphy said that building out capacity is key with 164 sites both publicly and privately up and running across the state. Click here to find out where you can get tested.

"Growing our capacity to meet our testing goal is only half the battle," he said. "You getting tested, by the way, is the other half."

Reiterating that data determines dates, Murphy said New Jersey can't consider specific timetables until specific benchmarks on key factors are met.

"In our hospitals we have seen the numbers we've needed to see to begin our restart," he said. "We need to keep working, and we need to get more data. More data means we get a better picture and more data means we get a better sense of where COVID-19 still exists and where hot spots could become flareups, so we can take quick corrective measures to stamp them out. And that data must come first and foremost from a rigorous testing program."

New Jersey began COVID-19 testing mid-March with a few hundred tests a day. By the end of that month that number had swelled to 6,000. April saw it double to 12,000 as New Jersey moved closer to the goal of 20,000 tests a day be the end of May.

"I noted that number wouldn't be our ceiling but rather a floor," Murphy said.

On Friday there were 27,000 tests, Saturday there were 30,000 and Sunday 21,000 tests. There were 16,000 tests on Memorial Day Monday and Murphy noted that Tuesday the numbers rebounded to 24,400.

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"Currently, New Jersey is ahead of 46 other states in terms of testing per capita and still climbing," Murphy said. "We know that our goals are well within reach and that is a good place for us to be given where we were two months ago. And the data that we get from these tests is invaluable. Out of the 30,000 tests recorded on May 23 only 7 percent were positive.

Murphy said it is not just the data coming but what has already been collected that will allow NJ to move to stage two.

"When you look at a spot positivity rate in the single digits, boy, that gives you a lot of confidence," he said. "And when you take out the serology tests and you look at the 'do you have it at this moment in time' that's hugely valuable so the more data you have in that respect the more confidence we have."

Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said the data will allow for the most important containment activity available: isolation and quarantine.

"In order to do that you need to test people, find the positives, isolate positives find their contacts and isolate and quarantine depending on their symptoms," she said. "That's the best tool we have in our toolkit to stop the spread."

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