Gov. Murphy, wife test negative for COVID-19 after 2 members of senior staff test positive

Gov. Phil Murphy and first lady Tammy Murphy have tested negative for COVID-19 after being exposed to a member of Murphy’s senior staff who tested positive.

News 12 Staff

Oct 22, 2020, 2:54 AM

Updated 1,513 days ago

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Gov. Phil Murphy and first lady Tammy Murphy have tested negative for COVID-19 after being exposed to a member of Murphy’s senior staff who tested positive. But the governor and his wife will voluntarily self-isolate through the weekend as a precaution.
The governor’s office confirmed that deputy chief of staff for intergovernmental affairs Mike Delamater is the staff member who tested positive for the virus. Delamater was in contact with the Murphys on Saturday.
The Murphy administration also announced late Wednesday afternoon that senior advisor Dan Bryan also tested positive for the virus. Bryan took the test out of an abundance of caution and remains asymptomatic, according to a spokesperson for the governor.
Murphy abruptly left an event Wednesday after announcing he was going into quarantine. He was speaking at a workforce development event his office organized with Democratic Rep. Donald Norcross at Camden County College when he said he had just learned a contact had tested positive.
“I will now unfortunately have to take myself off the field,” Murphy said at the workforce development event. “I can’t ask President [Donald] Trump not to come to Bedminster and do a fundraiser and have me sit here.”
The governor was referring to Trump’s fundraiser at his Bedminster golf club early this month, which occurred just hours before the president said he tested positive for the virus. Murphy earlier called the event irresponsible.
And although the governor and his wife tested negative for the virus Wednesday afternoon, he said that he will remain in isolation as a precaution.
"Out of an abundance of caution and in line with the highest levels of commitment to protecting public health, the Governor and First Lady will be canceling their in-person events and voluntarily quarantining through the end of the weekend, and each will take an additional COVID-19 test before they resume any in-person engagements,” a spokesperson for the Murphy administration said in a statement.
Contact tracers are now working to notify other people who may have been exposed to Delamater.
New Jersey has had more than 222,000 positive cases and 14,438 deaths. The state's daily coronavirus figures have doubled over the past month, state officials said earlier this week.
The Associated Press wire services contributed to this report.