Murphy says it’s time for New Jersey to ‘learn how to live’ with COVID-19

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said on Sunday that his state will need to “learn how to live” with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re not going to manage this to zero. We have to learn how to live with this,” Murphy said of the pandemic on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” 

“You got to preempt this, clearly, and we’re now getting caught up as a country,” he added, noting that COVID-19 cases are coming down in New Jersey and New York, which were “hit earliest by all of these waves.”

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) voiced a similar sentiment during an appearance on “Meet the Press.” 

“I do believe that we need to move from a pandemic status and mode of operation to more endemic,” he said. “I think we need to move out of the panic mode. I think we need to handle this and make sure that we continue with our normal lives,” Hutchinson added, noting that COVID-19 cases in Arkansas peaked last week. 

The governors’ remarks come after the White House said last week that roughly 60 million U.S. households had ordered free at-home COVID-19 tests from the Biden administration since the website used to order the tests launched.

Meanwhile, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll published last week found that 75 percent of Americans said they were tired of the pandemic.

Seventy-four percent of Democrats, 72 percent of Republicans and 80 percent of independents said they were tired of COVID-19, and more than 70 percent of each group said they were frustrated by the pandemic.