By Allison Perrine
History was made Wednesday, Jan. 20, as the U.S. welcomed its next president, Joe Biden, and first female, African American and Asian American vice president, Kamala Harris, during the 59th presidential inauguration.
The ceremony was held outside of the U.S. Capitol, just two weeks after the siege at the federal building led by pro-Donald Trump rioters amid the counting of electoral votes that confirmed Biden’s win. Because of this, many members of Congress at the inauguration wore body armor under their jackets, and everyone wore facial coverings due to the threat of the COVID-19 virus.
“This is America’s day. This is democracy’s day,” Biden, a Democrat, said as he took the podium to deliver his inaugural address. “We’ve learned again that democracy is precious… and at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.”
over 400,000 and growing – than were lost in World War II. He also addressed the racial injustices in the country and said, during his presidency his administration aims to confront and defeat white supremacy and domestic terrorism. His speech comes at a time when racial tensions across the country are high.
“Tomorrow begins a new day in our nation’s history,” said Gov. Phil Murphy, who attended the inauguration with his wife Tammy. He called Biden a “patriot of the highest level” during his press conference Tuesday on the eve of the inauguration. “I’m excited about the new opportunities of true federal cooperation that exist on the critical challenges that we face, from a real focus on fighting and defeating the pandemic, to investing meaningfully in our impacted families, to building a stronger economic future.”
“We must all aspire to a truer sense of patriotism. Whether you voted for him or not, at noon tomorrow he becomes our president. Note the word ‘our.’ This is how our democracy works,” Murphy continued. “This is the example we have set and must reset for all across our nation and around the world.”
He added his hopefulness that, under the new administration, a new federal focus would be made on pushing out vaccines to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Murphy said he hopes to start ramping up in-state capabilities to meet the “tremendous demand” as soon as possible.
“Meanwhile, we continue to push forward with the approximately 100,000 doses we’re receiving on a weekly basis, and our pharmacy partners… continue to move through the state, providing vaccinations to some of our highest-risk populations,” Murphy said. “They’re working through their appointments… but I have to say they need to punch at a higher weight.”
As of mid-morning Tuesday, Jan. 19, the state had vaccinated 388,160 individuals. There were an additional 3,761 new positive PCR tests detecting COVID-19 and 1,039 presumed positive antigen rapid tests, totaling a statewide total of 4,800 cases overnight. The cumulative total reached 635,701 New Jerseyans who had contracted the virus since last March, and 18,421 in total have died from it.
As he typically does during his press conferences, Murphy highlighted three individuals who recently died from COVID-19. One person mentioned was a Two River-area native, 53-year-old Ronald Hubert. He graduated from Middletown High School North and later became a volunteer first responder in town. He was a corporal in the Middletown Police Auxiliary and an emergency medical technician for the Port Monmouth First Aid Squad. He worked maintaining public utilities in Ocean Township, the governor said.
Hubert is survived by his wife of 26 years, Teresa, and their two daughters, Madeline, 22, and Jennifer, 21; his parents, Frank and Linda; and multiple siblings and nieces and nephews. “This is an incredible loss and a recent one,” said Murphy. “I had the incredible honor of speaking with Teresa, Madeline and Jennifer and as you can imagine, they’re all emotional. Jennifer in particular, burst out the fact that she’s turning 21 today and her dad would not be with her.”
As of Monday night, Jan. 18, hospitals statewide were treating about 3,287 known COVID-19 patients and another 219 who were awaiting test results, totaling 3,506. Of that number, 643 were in intensive care units and 429 required ventilators. Throughout the day, 240 patients were discharged statewide while 347 new COVID patients were admitted. The daily positivity rate is at 10.12 percent, which Murphy said is “not a range” that they would like to see but that has been consistently just above 10 percent for five days.
“We want that number to be down less than 1 percent, preferably at zero, but there was a period there not too long ago when it was spiking up and down. At least for now, it is not doing that,” said Murphy.
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 21-27, 2021 edition of The Two River Times.
