New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy tested positive for the CCP virus following a regularly-scheduled testing regime, his office confirmed on Thursday.
“This afternoon, as part of a regularly-scheduled testing regime, [Murphy] took a rapid antigen test that came back positive for COVID-19,” Mahen Gunaratna, a Murphy spokesman, said in a March 31 statement on social media.
“He subsequently took a PCR test, which also came back positive,” Gunaratna added. “He is currently asymptomatic and feeling well.”
The Democrat governor, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, will isolate for five days and all in-person events will be canceled. This is in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines.
“The contact tracing process has begun to notify everyone who may have come into contact with [Murphy],” Gunaratna said, also noting that the governor will “continue to monitor for symptoms before taking an additional PCR test.”
New Jersey’s CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus case counts have fallen significantly since late last year.
Murphy, 64, who started his second term in January, lifted major COVID-19 restrictions in early March, including the lifting of the indoor mask mandate, social distancing in most public spaces, and indoor gathering capacity limits.
“With COVID-19 moving into an endemic, the time has come to move toward normalcy,” Murphy said in a March 4 statement.
Judith Persichilli, the commissioner of health in the state, touted Murphy’s decision to drop most COVID-19 restrictions, saying it does make sense to relax restrictions as conditions keep improving and cases continue to drop.
The governor’s wife, Tammy Murphy, tested positive for the CCP virus earlier this year. The governor’s office said the rest of the family tested negative.
Murphy also underwent surgery to have a cancerous tumor removed from his kidney in March 2020, just as the first cases of COVID-19 surfaced in the state. His office has said the surgery was a success.
According to an Associated Press tally, Murphy is at least the 15th U.S. governor to test positive for the CCP virus.
