NJ Implements Rapid COVID Testing At Long-Term Care Facilities

NEW JERSEY - The New Jersey Department of Health is now requiring enhanced testing of staff, residents and visitors for the next two weeks, Governor Phil Murphy said during a recent COVID-19 briefing.

"The residents at our long term care facilities are among our most vulnerable," Murphy said. "Our aim is to catch any new cases quickly, so proper precautions can be taken before coronavirus can be spread throughout a facility."

The directive, which began Monday, includes:

• Staff is to be tested every other day, or 48 hours after their last shift.
• Residents who leave the facility frequently for testing, treatment or for more than 24 hours, are tested upon return.
• All visitors are to be tested.

First responders are exempt from testing.

The mandate applies to all long-term care facilities that possess a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment certification that allows a facility to test someone to assess health, diagnose, and determine treatment, a laboratory requirement for point of care testing, and which receive BinaxNow rapid tests from the Department of Health. The tests are BinaxNow tests from Abbott Labs detects the presence of protein antigens from SARS-CoV-2 in individuals suspected of COVID-19.

The Garden State has approximately 366,000 rapid tests and have begun sending them out.

The Murphy administration took heat earlier in the pandemic for its policies regarding long-term care outbreaks over the course of the spring as many said his administration forced facilities to take COVID-19 patients, which contributed to nearly half of New Jersey's confirmed pandemic deaths.

Murphy has vehemently disagreed with that characterization, noting that his administration was crystal clear and explicit about any reintroduction of COVID positive residents into long-term care facilities came with conditions. They would need to cohort, separate into different floors, or different buildings or different wings. The order included staff.

"Many came to us and said, 'We can't do that, can you help us find a place for these COVID positive patients?' We did exactly that," he said back in August. "So that talking point is myth."

Murphy also said that it may have happened, but it was explicitly against the guidance of his administration.

"Our aim is to save lives," Murphy said.

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