Full Notification

Below is an update from Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla on COVID-19:

To start off, I want to express my gratitude to the Office of Constituent Services for serving as a critical, frontline resource to residents during our COVID-19 response. Caroline Caulfield and Migdalia Pagan-Milano have shifted their duties in serving residents on routine issues, to being the first points of contact for so many seeking assistance. They have helped dozens of residents successfully navigate the state’s office of unemployment insurance, with many landlord/tenant issues, and most recently coordinated the many volunteers to deliver thousands of meals each week for our seniors. Caroline and Midgalia are among the many unsung heroes who work around the clock for Hoboken residents. I want to thank them and encourage them to keep up the great work they are doing. 
 
Impact of COVID-19 in Hoboken
 
Yesterday, the Hoboken Health Department reported four additional cases of COVID-19 in Hoboken, with no fatalities. Hoboken has a total of 489 known, confirmed cases of COVID-19, with a total of 23 fatalities. We have now fortunately been one week without a fatality, which is a very encouraging sign.
 
Prompt MD and Dr. Javedul Islam reported the recent results of the senior testing conducted in one of the senior buildings this past Wednesday. His team went door to door and conducted 115 tests, with 5 positive results, an additional 5 pending, and 105 negatives. I know this service was very much appreciated by those seniors and once again thank Dr. Islam and everyone who made this possible. Dr. Islam has offered to make this door to door service available again this upcoming Wednesday in another senior building.
 
As we expected, Riverside has expanded capacity and testing at their site, and is conducting more tests than before which now includes asymptomatic individuals. More of our public safety officers are receiving tests and immediate results, which is helping our emergency responses and staffing by limiting time in quarantine. We will have a larger report on this week’s testing by Monday.
 
Gradual, re-opening of parks
 
As I mentioned earlier this week, I know how hard it has been without our parks. Our open space and parks are what make our City special and I can’t wait until we can utilize them without restriction. Out of an abundance of caution, and in unison with our regional coalition of Mayors in six neighboring municipalities, we made the difficult decision to keep all Hoboken parks, both municipal and county (including Columbus Park), closed this weekend.  This decision is consistent with five of our neighboring municipalities, all of whom made the decision to keep their municipal parks closed this weekend for public safety reasons.
 
I want to assure residents that it is not a matter of if parks will re-open (with restrictions), but when they will open. I’ve had multiple meetings with our team this week, which includes the Office of Environmental Services, Recreation Department, Hoboken Police Department and Office of Emergency Management to ensure that when we do, it’s as safe as possible for residents considering the circumstances. One thing I ask everyone to keep in mind that while certain sections of parks will be included in the first phase of a gradual re-opening, including Elysian Park, Stevens Park, Church Square Park, Columbus Park, and the Southwest Resiliency Park, a number of other parks won’t be able to open for quite some time. Many of our Hoboken parks contain primarily playground equipment – for example Madison Street Park, Jefferson Park and Pier C – which unfortunately will stay closed as we will be following guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Playground equipment could spread the virus as it is very difficult to keep it clean and disinfected.
 
While parks are open in Jersey City this weekend, a concern of mine is that parks in neighboring Union City and Weehawken are not. If we were to start with the first phase of our gradual parks re-opening, we could have very well faced overcrowding challenges from residents in neighboring municipalities with closed parks, coming to Hoboken. This is the reason why we formed a regional coalition of Hudson County Mayors, so we can work together on this issue and make sure that the process of re-opening parks is a collaborative effort.
 
Early next week, I will be conferring with the regional coalition of North Hudson Mayors, all of whom have kept their municipal parks closed this weekend, about coordinated next steps. I know many residents will be disappointed that parks are not open this weekend. I understand and share your frustration, and I respect that you may disagree. These decisions are never easy ones, but please know that any decision is guided by our objective to keep our residents safe, irrespective if the decision is not a popular choice. 
 
In the middle of all this, my overarching message is: please continue to stay at home as much as possible. It’s as simple as that, and I know it’s not easy, but the more we can do this, the quicker we can contain this virus and resume normal activities. This is the best way to stay #HobokenStrong.
 
Continuing to think ahead when being outdoors
 
One thing that I ask residents to please think about, as we get into warmer weather, is to prioritize time outside the home in the earlier morning hours or later in the day, to avoid peak periods of outdoor activity. Relieving stress on our sidewalks, and eventually in our parks during times of high volume will help everyone social distance whenever possible.
 
Sincerely,

Mayor Ravi S. Bhalla