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Will Summer Crowds at the Jersey Shore Unleash a New Wave of COVID-19?

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Beachgoers seek normalcy after long lockdown, but not without misgivings about pandemic

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Jon Hurdle

On a warm afternoon at Seaside Heights, Nick Amoresano allowed himself a trip to the beach for the first time in about three months of pandemic-related confinement, but said he wasn’t completely confident that mingling with hundreds of others was the safe thing to do.

“You obviously take a risk when you come out here,” said Amoresano, 21, a college student. “I feel like now, we’re at a point where the total number of cases has dropped enough where we can feel safe going out, for the time being at least.”

On Saturday, Amoresano sat close with friends and shared the beach with others, some of whom were practicing social distancing and others who appeared to be ignoring it, as they tried to shrug off months of stay-at-home orders and state-ordered business shutdowns, and revert to some semblance of normalcy.

He expressed confidence that Gov. Phil Murphy has done the right thing by imposing stringent lockdown orders since mid-March. By comparison with states like Texas and Florida, where a resurgent virus has recently forced the reimposition of some closures, New Jersey set the right policies, whereas those that didn’t act with such force now appear to be paying the price, he said.

“I feel like our government has done a good job so far in keeping everything low-key and closed down for as long as they possibly could, and now the cases are on the way down,” he said. “We were able to flatten the curve.”

But his confidence didn’t extend as far as the Seaside Heights boardwalk about 100 yards away where a throng of visitors, most not wearing masks, were mingling, strolling, and queuing for hot dogs, and women in the long line for the ladies’ room were a lot less than 6 feet apart.

“When you’re walking up there, you are taking a little bit more of a risk but you are passing by these people; you are not really staying in an enclosed area,” Amoresano said. “You hear about these hotspots.”

Renewed concern among doctors

The gathering of large numbers of people in Shore towns as the summer season gets underway has renewed concern among doctors, local officials and even some beachgoers about a possible resurgence in the virus after a significant decline in infections thanks to three months of stay-at-home orders and state-mandated business shutdowns.

As of June 30, the number of new hospitalizations for the virus was down 95% from its peak, while the number of patients in intensive care was down 89%, Murphy said Wednesday.

Towns up and down the Shore are hoping that their businesses can salvage a successful summer season after an economically disastrous shutdown lasting three months in some cases. Local officials are urging visitors to continue to wear masks and stay away from others who are not in their immediate family.

But the Shore’s hopes for a full return to normal activity were dashed on Monday when Gov. Murphy postponed plans to allow indoor dining, which had been scheduled to resume on Thursday, July 2 but have now been put off indefinitely because of the recent surge in infections in many other states and the violation of social-distancing rules by a few New Jersey restaurants and bars.

“Given the current situation in numerous other states, we do not believe it is prudent at this time to push forward with what is, in effect, a sedentary indoor activity, especially when we know that this virus moves differently indoors than out, making it even more deadly,” Murphy said at his daily briefing on Monday.

He said the infection spikes in other states were caused in part by indoor dining by people who weren’t wearing masks.

“We do not wish to see New Jersey experience a similar spike,” he said. “We have been cautious throughout every step of our restart, and have always said that we would not hesitate to hit pause if needed to safeguard public health.”

While most bars and restaurants, and their customers, have complied with social-distancing rules, a few have not, and that risks reversing the state’s progress in curbing the virus, Murphy said.

“It only takes one,” he said. “The careless of one establishment can completely undo the good work of the others. We will not tolerate outlier bars and restaurants and, frankly, patrons who think the rules don’t apply to them. Compliance is not a polite suggestion; it is required.”

Asked at his briefing on Wednesday whether people should stay home or limit gatherings to prevent any COVID-19 spread over the holiday weekend, Murphy urged people to wear masks and celebrate outside rather than inside if they could. But if there’s no option of gathering outside, “I think you’ve got to limit” the number of people, he said.

Photo by Ethan Hoover on Unsplash

Murphy urged New Jerseyans to continue to follow social distancing guidelines so that the state doesn’t experience a spike like those in California and Arizona. “We pray for them, we wish them nothing but a speedy resolution but we can’t let that happen to us, we can’t go through hell again.”

Meanwhile, the mayor of Seaside Heights, Tony Vaz, said his administration hired about 15 “social-distancing monitors” starting at the end of June, to “courteously” remind people on the beach and the boardwalk that they must stay at least 6 feet apart from anyone who is not a household member.

Operators of restaurants and amusement arcades, which can reopen starting this Thursday, July 2, will be responsible for complying with the rules, and will risk ticketing or even the loss of their licenses if they are over-occupied, Vaz said.

The July 4 weekend will be a big test for people’s observation of social distancing because the crowds are expected to be a lot bigger than anything seen since the Shore started to reopen, swelled by the many house rentals that start from July 1, Vaz said.

Unable to enforce mask wearing

He acknowledged that many people on the boardwalk lack masks but said mask wearing is an “individual choice” that he can’t enforce.

“Everybody’s got their own opinions,” Vaz said. “There are people who believe that this is very frightening, and there are people that believe this is a hoax. I don’t like trying to convince somebody that this is not a hoax. I don’t think it’s a hoax at all; we have a problem and it’s gotten better in New Jersey.”

Asked whether the summer rush to Shore resorts like Seaside Heights could undo all the good work that New Jersey has done to curb the virus, Vaz said it will depend on the willingness of businesses and individual visitors to do the right thing.

“We are all going to watch,” he said. “Not only Seaside Heights, every beach community is going to watch. We don’t want 25 percent to become 50 percent. We don’t want to violate anything; once you start violating, you have problems.”

For Dr. Judith Lightfoot, chief of infectious disease at Rowan University’s School of Osteopathic Medicine, beach crowds at the Jersey Shore can’t realistically be expected to practice social distancing because they are too tightly packed, and so represent the start of a potential new wave of infections.

In addition to possible new community spread, the Shore also risks exposure from the virus being brought in from out of state, despite the recent order from the governors of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut that anyone coming from at least 16 states where infections are newly surging should quarantine for two weeks upon entering the tri-state area, she said.

Who’s going to monitor?

“People are migrating into New Jersey, and if they don’t quarantine for two weeks, they are going to be out and about, and who’s going to monitor that?” she asked. “Were they practicing social distancing wherever they came from, even if it was in the tri-state area? Are they going to wear masks?”

Larger groups of extended family visiting the Shore should not assume that they won’t be exposed to COVID-19, Lightfoot warned, because the more people, the greater the likelihood that some of them will bring in infection from outside the group.

And if someone gets infected over the holiday weekend, it won’t take long for it to show up. “If somebody had active Covid over the July 4 weekend, that individual will probably show symptoms within 72 hours to a week,” she said.

At Longport, there are no restrictions on the number of beach badges the town is selling because the beach is wide enough to take the expected number of people this weekend, while not violating social-distancing practices, said the mayor, Nick Russo.

So far this summer, there have been no complaints about social-distancing violations, Russo said. But he said that could become more challenging as rising temperatures draw more people to the water’s edge to cool off, making it more likely that they will move off other areas of the beach, and come within 6 feet of each other.

“It would not surprise me if our police officers remind people: ‘We realize it’s hot, but we still have to do what’s right and try to keep six feet apart,’” he said.

Recognizing the risk

On the beach at Seaside Heights, Aileen Narfolejos, 29, an accountant from Piscataway, had come for a day out with her husband, her parents and her sister. She said they always wore masks on the boardwalk and kept the appropriate distance from others on the beach, but nevertheless recognized that their outing was not without risk.

“We don’t see many people wearing masks, which is worrisome but we can only do what we can do,” she said. “We’re all working from home so we feel safe enough that we can be together without exposing ourselves to the virus.”

Colin Baldwin, 23, a recent college graduate, said he wasn’t so worried about getting the virus because he is young, but is more concerned about giving it to others, and so has given up going to bars and restaurants, even for outdoor dining, which is now allowed by the state.

“It’s something I try to be good about,” he said. “I might grab a water bottle but that would be the extent of it.”

Despite the attempts by town officials to enforce social distancing, and the threat of penalties for bars and restaurants that break the reopening rules, the success or otherwise of Jersey Shore towns in preventing a COVID-19 resurgence this summer will in the end come down to individual action, argued Mayor Russo of Longport.

“We as a government cannot legislate common sense,” he said. “It’s absolutely impossible.”

 

Header: Ocean City, NJ. Photo by Jesse Gardner on Unsplash

Covid-19 image

Jersey City Covid-19 Update 4/13: Face Coverings and Parking

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Retail Stores and Face-Covering Requirements

Governor Murphy’s executive order provide new rules for retail stores effective, today, Monday, April 13 at 8 p.m. which  mandate that retail stores must:

Photo courtesy Gov. Phil Murphy’s Facebook page

  • Limit the number of customers to no more than 50% of their approved capacity.
  • Require workers to wear cloth face coverings while on the premises
  • Demarcate six feet of spacing in check-out lines.
  • Provide special shopping hours for high-risk individuals, erect physical barriers between customers and cashiers and baggers where practicable, regularly sanitize areas used by their employees, & more.

Customers of those stores must also wear cloth face coverings while on the premises, including at restaurants and bars for take-out orders (with exemptions for children under 2 and for people where a face covering inhibits their health).

A face covering does not mean a medical-grade mask and can include a bandana or a homemade fabric covering.

The order does not mandate wearing face-coverings outdoors.

Jersey City Parking update

Suspended until further notice:

  • Alternative Side Parking
  • Meters
  • Zone permits
  • Driveway painting.

Enforced:

  • Safety violations
  • Blocked hydrants/Corners/Driveways & Handicapped parking(with ticket and tow)

Permits/signs:

 

How the Inadequate Supply of Protective Equipment Takes a Toll on Nurses

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Two nurses tell their stories as union rep says ‘conflicts between hospital administrators and medical staff’ are increasing

This story was written and produced by NJ Spotlight. It is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. To read more, visit njspotlight.com.

Full story link – HERE.

By Ian T. Shearn

Pam Tavarone, a veteran  ICU nurse at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Passaic, suited up for work last Friday in the makeshift safety uniform she had been wearing for the past week and a half — a white Tyvek painter’s suit, goggles and an industrial-grade respirator mask — all of which she had acquired herself. Supplies of personal protection equipment at the hospital were in short supply. The heavy-duty mask had left bruises on each side of her nose from her 12-hour shifts.

But on this particular day she was uncommonly troubled. She had been experiencing tightness in her chest and shortness of breath for three days. “I could feel something was going on. It was knocking me out,” she said. Her “gut” was whispering  bad news. She has a history of asthma; two of her three daughters have underlying conditions — diabetes and asthma. She needed to be tested.

At first, “they didn’t want to give me a test, because I didn’t have a fever. But I pushed, and they gave in.” The results came back Saturday: Her gut was right; she was positive.

Now, Tavarone is quarantined in her home. At first, the hospital refused to prescribe medication for her, she said. But again, she “pushed” and they relented. She is taking hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), the experimental anti-viral drug, which has yet to be confirmed effective for COVID-19.

Tavarone blames no one

Tavarone is stressed, she is afraid — more for her children than herself — but remains resolute in her optimism, a common trait of ICU nurses. She blames no one. She did everything she could to protect herself, and she harbors no ill will for a hospital outmatched and overrun by the pandemic. An administrator told her that reinforcements in the form of nursing volunteers will arrive Tuesday. And “they keep tell us they’re trying” to get more gear,” she says.

Not all of her colleague feel the same way. At least three nurses at her hospital have already contracted the coronavirus, Tavarone said, and four have resigned out of fear — two walked out and two have given notice. Nurses there are given one mask and one gown per shift. Some have taken to wearing garbage bags over their flimsy plastic gowns. Fear has consumed the hospital. Morale, she says, is “sub-zero.”

“During this current COVID-19 outbreak, we are experiencing the same trials and challenges as every hospital in New Jersey and the nation,” wrote Vanessa Warner, a spokeswoman for St. Mary’s. “We are completely focused on the safety of every member of our staff and each patient they so valiantly care for.”

The depletion of personal protection equipment (PPE) and a shortage of nurses, has caused anxiety to rapidly escalate among frontline health care workers throughout New Jersey and beyond. It is a problem that won’t be solved until more PPE can be produced. But hospitals like St. Mary’s can’t close down in the middle of an outbreak because they lack protective equipment. They must soldier on.

Some nurses told to store masks between shifts

“When COVID patients first began arriving at our members’ facilities, medical workers changed gowns and masks after each encounter with an infected patient,” said Douglas Placa, executive director of JNESO District Council 1, the union that represents 5,000 nurses in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including Tavarone (who is her local’s president). “Soon, they were instructed to  keep their protective gear on until the end of their shift. At some hospitals, nurses are now being told to store their masks in a paper bag between shifts.”

For reasons hard to understand, the dearth of masks, gloves and gowns continues to plague America. The federal stockpile is deficient and the manufacturers thus far have been unable to meet the overwhelming demand. Hospitals and state governments are engaged in international bidding wars to purchase masks for exorbitant prices. President Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act, but has not yet ordered U.S. manufacturers to produce more medical supplies.

For New Jersey nurses, it certainly did not go unnoticed when two New York city nurses died from COVID-19 in the past two weeks. New York is the epicenter of the coronavirus in the U.S., and New Jersey is ranked second. Passaic County, where St. Mary’s is located, ranks fourth in the state with 3,227 cases and 42 deaths. Cases continue to spike and both states expect that to continue for weeks.

Nurses here wonder if Europe is providing a terrifying preview of what’s in store. In Italy, France and Spain, where hospitals have been overrun by the pandemic, more than 30 health care professionals have died of the coronavirus, and thousands of others have had to self-isolate. In Italy alone, more than 11,000 medical personnel have been infected.

The message from Italian doctors

A group of doctors from a hospital in Bergamo, Italy — treating more than 4,000 COVID-19 patients with just 48 ICU beds — offered this sobering account in the New England Journal of Medicine:

“We are learning that hospitals might be the main Covid-19 carriers, as they are rapidly populated by infected patients, facilitating transmission to uninfected patients. … Health workers are asymptomatic carriers or sick without surveillance; some might die, including young people, which increases the stress of those on the front line.”

While Tavarone and her colleagues have been jerry-rigging their own safety equipment, one South Jersey nurse was reprimanded and sent home for bringing in her own mask — the coveted N95, which is in short supply across the country.

Dawn Kulach, a nurse at Virtua Voorhees Hospital in Camden County, was elated when she was recently informed her COVID-19 test result was negative. She had been placed in mandatory quarantine, suffering only from pneumonia. It meant that not just she, but her spouse and son were OK. But her relief and her sense of well-being were short lived.

When her fever subsided, she returned to work last week. Knowing the hospital was also perilously short of PPE, she turned to her personal supply. She knew the precious N95s were being kept under lock and key at their hospital and given only to those dealing directly with infected patients, which she was not. She had been able to accumulate a couple dozen N95s on her own.

As she was preparing to leave for work, her 10-year-old son started crying. He pleaded for her not to go, Kulach said. She showed him her mask, and assured him it would keep her safe.

‘Thinnest mask I have ever seen’

Upon her arrival she was taken aback when no one took her temperature, or anyone else’s, before she entered the building. She reported to her unit, a pulmonary unit that included coronavirus patients and was handed “the thinnest mask I have ever seen.” She wasn’t assigned any confirmed COVID-19 patients, but three of her patients had heavy coughs and fevers. “All safety protocols have been thrown out of the window,” she said. She put that mask over her own N95.

She was soon confronted by a supervisor, taken to a conference room with a security guard standing silently by. She was told to remove her unauthorized mask. She refused, saying “if the hospital can’t protect me, I have to protect myself, my patients and my family.” She said her manager then ordered her “to clock out and go home.” And then the kicker, according to Kulach: “She strongly suggested that I rethink my career.”

“Conflict between hospital administrators and medical staff is becoming widespread,” Placa said. “The main topic of concern is the appropriate use of PPEs and safety of our members and their patients.” Placa said he was informed by one nurse that “she was given a mask and management told, ‘Use this for the week.’”

Kulach is scheduled to meet on Tuesday with her superiors to discuss her employment status. She fears she will be fired.

She will be accompanied by a union rep and intends to tell hospital officials that “this is not what I signed up for. … I didn’t go into disaster nursing, and we are not getting any disaster pay. … I have the right to protect myself and my family. I didn’t refuse to treat patients. … If I have the means to protect myself, I’m going to.”

The collective good

If they don’t let her wear her own N95 mask, she said she simply will not return to work. “I promised my son I would wear the mask. … Maybe I will have to rethink my career.”

Dr. Reginald Blaber, executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Virtua Health, Virtua Voorhees’ parent company, declined to comment on Kulach’s situation, but did offer this: “The collective good must supersede any individual’s choice or desires during these challenging times.

“Like all health systems in the country, we are working with a limited supply and an ongoing shortage of N95s and other forms of personal protective equipment.

“Recognizing the global shortage of supplies, we must be meticulous stewards of our resources so we never find ourselves without what we need.”

Told of Kulach’s story, Tavarone was supportive: “I guess they would have sent me home every day.”

In the meantime, Tavarone is riding it out in quarantine. But now her husband has developed a cough, and she said she will “push” to get him tested. And when she recovers, she said, she will return to work.

She had lost track of the death count at St. Mary’s, but last week, before she was tested, she and her colleagues “celebrated our first success story” when one of their ICU patients became well enough to be discharged from the unit.

 

Header: Photo by Jeff Rhode / Holy Name Medical Center