Ncov-Informer.com

Phil Murphy will announce that New Jersey has tapped outside firms to begin a long-promised review of how the state responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, two years and nine months after the virus began spreading here, NJ Advance Media has learned. The independent review will be conducted by a team at Philadelphia law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads — led by a Republican former assistant state attorney general — and a report will be released in late 2023, the governor’s office will announce later Monday. Two years and nine months after the COVID-19 pandemic started spreading in New Jersey, Phil Murphy will make the long-promised announcement that the state has hired outside firms to start a review of how it handled the situation. This is according to NJ Advance Media. The independent review will be carried out by a group at the Philadelphia law firm Montgomery McCracken Walker and Rhoads, led by a Republican former assistant state attorney general. The governor’s office will make the announcement later on Monday. Help will be provided by the Massachusetts-based management consulting company Boston Consulting Group. In April 2020, just a few weeks after COVID-19 started to spread in New Jersey, Murphy made the initial commitment to carry out a postmortem on the pandemic. The Democratic governor has repeated those plans numerous times since then, claiming last month that it has taken longer than anticipated. Republicans have chastised him for the delay time and time again. New Jersey will, according to Murphy’s office, be the first state in the nation to order an “independent and comprehensive” review of the pandemic. The estimated cost to the state of the review was not disclosed by his office. The state’s management of testing, immunizations, personal protection equipment, and other issues will also be examined, according to the office. This includes how it dealt with “vulnerable residents” who were in long-term care. Additionally, it will offer suggestions on how the state can prepare for upcoming public health emergencies, according to the office. In a statement obtained by NJ Advance Media, Murphy said, “The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the biggest challenges our state — and nation — has ever faced.” “Throughout the pandemic, it was my duty as governor to base every choice I made on the data, information, and science at my disposal in order to protect the health and safety of all 9.3 million residents, regardless of the political climate. In order to take the necessary steps to better prepare future administrations for a public health crisis, it is also my responsibility as governor to conduct a thorough and in-depth review of how the state was prepared for and responded to the pandemic. The review will be overseen by Paul Zoubek, who served as Christie Whitman and Donald DiFrancesco’s first assistant state attorney general. He now works from the Montgomery McCracken Walker office in Cherry Hill. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, Zoubek also worked for the state Department of Law and Public Safety. he has presided over numerous investigations into state government and the September 11 terrorist attacks. Paul Zoubek is the ideal candidate to head this review because of his experience in emergency management and government investigations, according to Murphy. He is a well-respected, nonpartisan, and seasoned state and federal prosecutor. The review could “help save lives in the next crisis,” Corrado, a Republican from Passaic, said in an August letter to Murphy criticizing him for not having set a release date. Murphy stated on Monday that although COVID-19 is “still present,” the state has transitioned from a pandemic to an endemic phase, and “now is the right time to undertake such an independent review. To commission a review “while we were in the thick of it,” a senior Murphy administration official told NJ Advance Media that it probably would not have been “possible or responsible. The official spoke under oath because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the situation. Since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in March 2020, more than 35,093 people have died in New Jersey, a state with a population of 9.3 million and an early epicenter of the pandemic. According to state statistics, more than 9,800 of those fatalities occurred among people receiving long-term care in nursing homes and other facilities as well as among those working there. On Monday, the state announced 976 additional COVID-19 cases as well as 10 deaths that had been confirmed. To help stop the spread, Murphy shut