New Jersey receives 500 additional ventilators from national stockpile to combat coronavirus

New Jersey is receiving 500 additional ventilators from the national stockpile to help the state in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Sunday. 

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The shipment of additional ventilators to the state comes after Murphy held multiple conversations over the last two days with the White House, including with Vice President Mike Pence and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

New Jersey has now received four shipments of ventilators from the federal government during the COVID-19 outbreak. After a retrieval of 200 ventilators in early March, the state then received 300 ventilators on Monday and 350 ventilators on Wednesday. 

As a result, New Jersey now has 1,350 of the 1,650 ventilators that the state has requested from the national stockpile to combat the virus. Murphy has continued to reiterate that ventilators are still New Jersey’s biggest need right now to treat patients across the state.

Murphy announced on Saturday that the state will be receiving more than 75,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) from a hoarded stockpile that federal authorities seized this week in Brooklyn, New York. The PPE shipment to the state includes more than 70,000 N95 masks and 5,000 gloves, which will go directly to workers on the frontlines of the crisis.

Last week, the state received a shipment of PPE from the federal government that included 120,000 N95 masks, 287,000 surgical masks, 62,000 face shields, 51,000 surgical gloves, 3,500 coveralls, 368,000 pairs of gloves and 1,000 medical beds.

This past Tuesday, New Jersey received an additional 260,000 pieces of PPE from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The state was then able to obtain nearly 10 million more pieces of PPE on its own this past Wednesday.

Murphy signed an executive order last Saturday directing health care facilities to report information such as bed, PPE and ventilator inventory on a daily basis. The order, which went into effect last Sunday morning, is directed toward licensed acute care hospitals, long-term care facilities, hospital systems and temporary medical facilities.

Murphy previously had signed an executive order mandating all businesses and non-hospital health care facilities to submit its inventory of personal protective equipment, ventilators, respirators and anesthesia machines to the state.

Murphy then signed an executive order on Thursday authorizing the New Jersey State Police to take control of extra medical supplies and equipment held by companies and health care facilities that are not currently in operation.

New Jersey has 37,505 confirmed coronavirus cases, the second-most of any state, and 97 deaths due to COVID-19 as of Sunday afternoon. Of those cases, 1,629 positive cases have emerged in South Jersey.

Camden County has 556 cases and eight deaths, Burlington County has 547 cases and 11 deaths, Gloucester County has 248 cases and three deaths, Atlantic County has 121 cases and one death, Cape May County has 77 cases and two deaths, Cumberland County has 54 cases and two deaths, and Salem County has 26 cases and two deaths.