An Economy on a Ventilator

To access the Herald’s local coronavirus/COVID-19 coverage, click here.
COURT HOUSE – In the week since June 2, public health numbers kept getting better, with 22 new COVID-19 cases in seven days. The same week, in May, produced 97 confirmed cases. The week following April 2 saw 78 new cases. The virus that has taken over 12,000 lives in the Garden State has given Cape May County a glancing blow.
The county had its grief. As of June 8, the county experienced 53 fatalities, three-quarters of which were residents in long-term care facilities spread from Ocean City to Lower Township. This week, those care locations calmed. For the past week, there were no new fatalities in long-term care facilities.
The county Department of Health hit milestones this week. June 3 was the first day since April 5 when there were no new cases to report. Testing programs increased, with reported testing levels representing the kind of metrics infectious disease experts have been calling for. One report of 310 tests a day in the county surpassed the target recommendation of 153 tests a day per 100,000 of the population. The positivity rate reported was 2.5%, well within targets for moving to a safe reopening.
No one can predict the actions of so transmittable a virus, but the numbers said the county was doing well.
The other casualty of the virus was not doing as well at all. The county’s economy was on a ventilator, needing assistance to breath. One week before the June 15 start of Gov. Phil Murphy’s Stage 2 component of his road back plan, many in the county expressed frustration with the slow pace of the reopening.
Over months, executive orders closed travel, required stay-at-home protocols, shuttered nonessential retail, restaurant dining, construction, entertainment, and had limited gatherings. It turned out that practically the entire county’s economy was deemed nonessential.
Memorial Day came and went without its usual fanfare. New announcements came, cancelling Independence Day events. A summer without fireworks was in the offing. The uniqueness of an economy that sells an experience, markets a memory, was lost in the state recovery plan.
Where many areas of the state’s economy can lose a dollar in August and hope to gain it back in October, no such opportunity exists for local businesses. A county plan for a regional approach to reopening was sent to the governor in early May. It drew praise for its thoughtful approach to a safe and controlled reopening that would protect public health and provide an opportunity for the essential summer to succeed.
After that praise,  it was shelved in Trenton. The county became part of a homogenized, one-size-fits-all recovery plan that has local businesses planning for outdoor dining with no word on when indoor seating will be allowed, with curbside retail waiting for capacity-limited, in-store sales.
Municipalities are doing what they can. In the past week, governing body votes closed streets, removed barriers to public outdoor consumption of alcohol, and allowed outside displays of retail merchandise.
A $6 billion-a-year tourist economy is trying to cobble together the components of a summer experience, trying to patchwork the quilt in a way that will be attractive enough so that the critical summer will not be a total loss. Livelihoods depend on it, as do jobs.
New figures released this week from the state show 26.6% county unemployment (see story on the front page), better than one in four members of the workforce out of jobs. The signs do not bode well for fall and winter, when the jobs will not be available for workers who hope to return to them.
The Brookings Institute labeled Cape May County the seventh-most vulnerable area in the nation to the economic impact of the pandemic. Opening dates in the county plan sent to the governor one month ago have passed. Museums remain closed, as are the zoo and many historic sites. There is no hint when indoor dining might be allowed. Stage 3 in the governor’s road back plan seems distant enough that it may not arrive, even in the later parts of the summer.
Murphy said this week, “Just because the calendar says June 15 does not mean everyone should go back to what they were doing pre-COVID.” Few in the county would disagree that the virus is not to be discounted, yet a look at the calendar says another patient, the county’s economy, is in need of care.
The past week, the first week of June, means the summer is no longer approaching, but here.
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
ED. NOTE: See the Herald website for daily COVID-19 updates and related coverage.