It’s Been A Year Since COVID-19 Arrived In NJ: A Look Back – Patch.com

NEW JERSEY – It has been one calendar year since the Garden State had the first confirmed case of the novel coronavirus diagnosed. At the time the 32-year-old Fort Lee man was seeking help at Hackensack University Medical Center school buses and classrooms and lunchrooms were packed with students. We embraced freely, we socialized at will, and we never thought about needing extra toilet paper. Businesses and restaurants and sporting and theater venues were packed with patrons all unaware that in two weeks, life as we knew it would be put on pause.

At the time the patient joined a list of 159 nationwide. A year later New Jersey has nearly 705,000 confirmed cases. And these statistics don’t take into account the “long haulers” who are fighting significant respiratory and cardiac symptoms months after being infected, the children who suffer from multisystem inflammatory syndrome, the businesses that were shuttered permanently or the mental health crisis brought about by social the social isolation of quarantine.

In short, life in New Jersey does not look the same as it did a year ago.

When Dr. Daniel M. Varga, the chief physician executive for Hackensack Meridian Health, which operates Hackensack Medical Center began discussing calling people who may have been in contact with our patient zero, it was before the term contact tracing had become part of our parlance.

Terms like social distancing, mask up, PCR testing, nasal swab became a regular feature in our discourse. Daily press briefings by elected officials became part of our routine. Information was limited, fear was high and everyone had a different opinion on how to best proceed.

Here is a look back at the timeline of the coronavirus pandemic in the Garden State:

  • March 9: Governor Phil Murphy declares a state of emergency.
  • March 10: The first COVID-19 death is reported.
  • March 10: Schools are closed.

The seriousness and voraciousness of the infections threatened to overwhelm medical staffs up and down the Garden State and Governor Phil Murphy declared a state of emergency and public health emergency across all 21 counties in New Jersey, allowing state agencies and departments to utilize state resources to assist affected communities responding to and recovering from COVID-19 cases.

On March 10 2020, authorities first death of a COVID-19 patient in New Jersey. A year later the death of Little Ferry’s John Brennan, a former harness racing trainer who worked for years at New York’s Yonkers Raceway, would herald nearly 21,000 (and counting) more deaths over the span of the pandemic. March 10 also saw public and private schools and also colleges and universities close in-person instruction in favor of virtual learning.

  • March 20: Northeast counties in New Jersey see a spike in infections.
  • March 30: Ventilators and ICU headroom decreases to dangerous levels.

Predictably, the spread of COVID-19 in New Jersey came from New York City, with its tendrils stretched thick along commuting lines and weakening into wisps the further out you traveled. The densest populations, the ones bordering the city, were hit the hardest. Bergen and Essex County in particular saw signs of strain as infections were outpacing the ability to provide treatment.

Personal protection equipment grew scarce and hospitals started to be overwhelmed. The treatments were iffy at best with a large degree of success relying on keeping critical care patients off of ventilators, which were in short supply.

While COVID symptoms were rare in children, the infections showed no prejudice in how it spread. Patients of all ages were impacted those with preexisting conditions and those without were vulnerable, and dying.

  • March 16: A statewide curfew is imposed.
  • March 24: A statewide stay-at-home order is enacted.

The news on the federal level was that a viable vaccine would be a year away, and with case counts rising and headroom in intensive care units falling New Jersey made some drastic changes to adapt.

Murphy imposed a statewide curfew on March 16 which shut down casinos, movie theaters and gyms and restricted eateries to takeout or delivery only. A few days later, on March 21, Murphy enacted a statewide stay-at-home order requiring all non-essential businesses to be closed indefinitely. This order remained in place until June 9.

  • April: COVID cases crest in New Jersey.

During Easter weekend cases, hospitalizations crest in New Jersey. One long-term care facility is cited after crafting a makeshift morgue where more than a dozen bodies were being kept. But May also brought with it a change as New Jersey started reducing restrictions and forging a path to a new normal.

June saw a big change as summer amusements were given the green light alongside outdoor dining.

While children were not symptomatic with COVID, some began developing multisystem inflammatory syndrome even as treatments for the coronavirus continued to develop.

By July, outdoor water parks, indoor pools, museums, libraries, aquariums casinos, outdoor playgrounds, outdoor amusement parks, and indoor recreational facilities were permitted to reopen at limited capacity and the limit on outdoor gatherings was raised to 500 people.

August saw a setback when indoor gatherings were reduced from 100 to 25 and school districts struggled to start the new school year under state guidelines. The educational experience in New Jersey was wildly uneven as some districts were able to open fully, some modified in hybrid cohorts and others needed to remain fully virtual over staffing and ventilation concerns.

The fall and winter were predicted to be, and were, difficult ones. Unemployment delays, business closures and mental health concerns arising from months of isolation were in the forefront as a contentious election season which brought rallies, parades, convoys and demonstrations. Some in defiance of executive orders that local businesses also broke.

On Dec. 15, things changed when Maritza Beniquez, an emergency room nurse at University Hospital in Newark, received the first dose of the Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Soon after New Jersey opened six COVID-19 vaccine megasites across the state and began bringing satellite facilities in hospitals, health centers, urgent care centers and pharmacies online.

The new year brought big changes on the restriction front as vaccines were being distributed to first reponders and healthcare workers as part of group 1a and then was expanded to 1b which included those 65 and older and those under 65 with a certain set of conditions.

March saw more openings as a new push to vaccinate educators was heeded when Murphy opened up vaccine eligibility for teachersbeginning March 15. Murphy made the announcement on Twitter early Monday that pre-K to 12 educators and support staff, child care workers, transportation workers and additional public safety workers

Later Monday, Murphy also announced during his news conference that food workers and many other groups will be eligible, too, beginning on March 29. Read more: More NJ COVID Vaccine Expansion: Clergy, Food Workers And More

Murphy made the teacher immunization announcement on MSNBC, saying vaccines will be expanding in “phases” to essential workers, and at the head of that list will be teachers.

“Protecting our kids, getting them the best education possible, helping moms and dads cover this extraordinary stressful period of having to work, in many cases, from home and (have) kids that are in the school systems that may not be in person — it’s an imperative of ours to get school and get that back up on its feet,” Murphy said on MSNBC.

But the vaccines and the reopenings will do little to comfort the 21,000 families that lost loved ones. The hundreds of business owners that lost livelihoods and the students who missed proms, graduations, sports seasons and in-person learning.

No matter where New Jersey goes from here, the state and its people are forever changed by this pandemic year.

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