NJ Gov tests positive for COVID-19

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) tested positive for COVID-19 in a breakthrough case of the virus, a spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

“This afternoon, as part of a regularly-scheduled testing regime, @GovMurphy took a rapid antigen test that came back positive for COVID-19. He subsequently took a PCR test, which also came back positive. He is currently asymptomatic and feeling well,” Mahen Gunaratna, a Murphy spokesperson, said in a statement on Twitter.

Gunaratna said that Murphy was fully vaccinated and boosted and that they were notifying those who may have come in contact with him. He added that the governor would be isolating over the next five days and canceling in-person events. 

“The Governor has diligently taken precautions to limit the spread of COVID-19 and encourages everyone eligible to get vaccinated and boosted, as he has done, to protect themselves and their loved ones from the virus,” Gunaratna said.

More than two years since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic, case numbers in the United States have declined following a spike driven by the omicron variant, as have deaths and hospitalizations. Amid that decline, states and cities around the country dropped COVID-19 restrictions such as indoor masking requirements.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has now said that the latest variant — the omicron subvariant BA.2 — is the most dominant strain in the U.S.

The variant is believed to be more transmissible than the original omicron strain, though it remains unclear what kind of impact it could have on the U.S., including what kind of increase in cases could be expected.