(Camden, NJ) – As our county and state cope with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Governor Phil Murphy announced today that the state is suspending all elective surgeries and other invasive procedures, effective 5 p.m. Friday, March 27.
The order covers all medical and dental procedures and includes an exemption for family planning services and procedures, including pregnancy termination. Those procedures already scheduled to take place this week can proceed, but any future procedures that patients have scheduled after the effective date of the order have been suspended. The order also requires all non-hospital health care facilities and colleges in the state to complete an inventory of their critical medical supplies, including ventilators and respirators, and send the information to the state by Friday.
The order is designed to reduce the overall burden on the state’s health care system and to preserve critically important supplies of medical equipment needed in the fight against the coronavirus.
“It is absolutely critical during this time that we do everything we can to ease the burden our health care system is facing in terms of hospital capacity, supplies and workload for our doctors and nurses,” said Freeholder Director Louis Cappelli Jr. “This executive order makes sense, as our health care professionals must focus fully on saving lives during this pandemic.”