Senate panel advances bill requiring DoH to publish historical long-term care deaths

A State Senate Panel advanced a measure that would require the Department of Health to continually publish data on the number of deaths in the state’s long-term care centers Monday.

“New Jersey currently has the highest rate of deaths from the coronavirus in our long-term care facilities, with 7,319 residents and staff succumbing to the disease to date,” Senate Health Committee Chairman Joe Vitale (D-Woodbridge) said. “The state currently maintains a COVID-19 Dashboard that includes data on COVID-19 cases and trends. However, beginning in mid-July the cumulative deaths and cases per facility were removed.”

Historical data on COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities has been removed, Vitale said. The bill, sponsored by Vitale and State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch) would require that data be posted online once more.

The bill, which passed the committee in a unanimous 8-0 vote, would take effect immediately and would expire a year after New Jersey’s state of emergency and public health emergency declarations lapse.

“It is widely known that COVID-19 disproportionately affects the elderly, and, as a result, many of our state’s elderly citizens have succumbed to COVID-19 in the last seven months,” Gopal said. “In order to help our people, we must take better action holding facilities accountable for tallying their totals cases and deaths. Through doing this, we can see where and when spikes are happening and do what we can to stop it in its tracks.”