Governor Phil Murphy, along with the governors of five other states, announced his appointments to the regional coronavirus council to restore the economy and get people back to work. 

The states, which besides for New Jersey are New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts, recently announced that they will work in a coordinated fashion to implement a strategy to get their states up and running again.

Each state’s governor appointed one health expert, one economic development expert, and their respective Chiefs of Staff to the multi-state team. Governor Murphy’s appointments to the council were:

• George Helmy, Chief of Staff to the Governor
• Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former Acting Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
• Jeh Johnson, Former United States Secretary of Homeland Security under President Barack Obama

“No one has given more thought or is more eager to restart our economy than I am, but if we don’t get the sequencing right, we put more lives at risk,” Governor Murphy said in a statement. “The only path to a sustainable economic recovery is through a strong healthcare recovery. Then, and only then, do we position ourselves to fully ignite our economy and get the residents of our state back to work while minimizing the danger of this disease. A coordinated, regional approach, informed by a multi-state council of experts, will help us avoid a major setback with potentially disastrous consequences. I look forward to the day when the facts on the ground allow us to ease our restrictions and move our regional economy forward.”