Key Takeaways

• New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced a new mandate requiring all workers in certain state and private health care settings to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 7, 2021 or face weekly or biweekly testing

• This impacts long-term care facilities, assisted living communities, acute and specialty care hospitals, short and post-acute in-patient rehabilitation facilities, licensed behavioral health facilities, and home care agencies

• Murphy emphasized that the Sept. 7 deadline would be enforced with no permitted exceptions or extensions

On August 2, 2021, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced a new mandate requiring all workers in certain state and private health care settings, including long-term care facilities, assisted living communities, acute and specialty care hospitals, short and post-acute in-patient rehabilitation facilities, licensed behavioral health facilities, and home care agencies, to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by September 7, 2021 or face weekly or biweekly testing. Gov. Murphy indicated the mandate was motivated by recent increases in cases and hospitalizations related to the Delta variant.

Gov. Murphy reiterated that the newly-imposed mandate represented the floor of measures the state government was prepared to undertake to increase vaccination rates in health care environments.

“If we do not see significant increases in vaccination rates among employees in these settings, we are ready and willing to require all staff to be vaccinated as a condition of their employment,” Gov. Murphy said in a statement.

Further, Gov. Murphy emphasized that the Sept. 7 deadline would be enforced with no permitted exceptions or extensions.

For more information regarding how this mandate will affect long-term care facilities and individual health care providers, please contact:

• Caroline J. Berdzik
• Jonathan L. Berkowitz
• Or another member of the Long-Term Care practice