Medical providers granted legal immunity in NJ amid global pandemic

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Gov. Phil Murphy approved a contested measure granting legal immunity to medical professionals and health care facilities treating COVID-19, as the administration and health care workers grapple with life and death decisions for patients due to an increasing shortage of ventilators.

Murphy’s Tuesday evening approval of the measure – Senate Bill 2333 – comes just over a day after state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said that her department sent out “last resort guidance” the week prior for hospitals in just that situation.

The goal of that guidance, Persichilli said, is to provide some direction to hospitals that may be faced with the daunting bioethical dilemma of rationing limited ventilators among direly ill patients.

Those guidelines urge hospital staff to hold off on triaging ventilators until they’ve exhausted any other alternative equipment that could deliver oxygen and do the job of the ventilator, according to Persichilli.

Currently, the state is short nearly 1,000 ventilators, and Persichill said Tuesday that as many as 3,500 COVID-19 patients in the state could need ventilators.

As of Tuesday, there were 68,824 COVID-19 positive cases in the state, 8,814 hospitalizations and 2,805 fatalities since the state’s first reported case on March 4.