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"These are uncertain times," Bon Jovi says in the clip. "What is for certain is the pain, the fear and the real needs of many of our neighbors, our friends, and certainly all of those who are on the front lines of this pandemic."
Also taking part in the performance: Jon Stewart, Chris Rock, and Whoopi Goldberg.
"This fund will direct dollars to those causes and organizations on the ground providing essential services," Goldberg says in the video.
The New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund has already topped $20 million in donations. The show will be broadcast on April 22 at 7 p.m. on a variety of platforms, including Apple Music and AppleTV apps, E Street Radio on SiriusXM, WPVI 6ABC, and New York radio stations 1010 WINS, WCBS 880, CBS-FM and WFAN.
The singers and celebrities will appear in videos from their homes.
The fund will provide grants to existing organizations that have a record of caring for vulnerable communities, according to the fund's organizers.
New cases and deaths
At his daily coronavirus briefing on Tuesday, Gov. Phil Murphy said rates of the spread of COVID-19 spread are slowing, and the curve is beginning to flatten. However, the governor stressed, that progress should not be take for granted.
Of those people, he said, 8,185 have been hospitalized. To give a snapshot of the current situation, he said, 2,051 of those people require critical or intensive care and 1,626 are on ventilators.
Murphy said 365 more deaths from the illness have been confirmed since Monday, and the total number now stands at 2,805.
At least 108 of the victims were from South Jersey. Roughly 4,000 cases have been reported in the southern part of the state.
The need for testing
Improving access to testing for coronavirus is essential to finding a path to a new normal, the governor said.
"We need reliable, safe, quick access to testing for everyone, and we need it everywhere," Murphy said — especially now, as he and the governors of five other states in the region begin collaborating on that plan.
No state has the resources they need to test at the rate they should be testing at, he said.
"We can't begin to think about reopening unless the cooperation and resources we get from the federal government is more robust," he said.
Murphy highlighted efforts at a few coronavirus testing sites in the state, adding that a list of all 66 sites is available online.
Murphy announced a new site for residents of Somerset and Hunterdon counties, taking people ages 5 and older, by appointment only, who are showing symptoms of the virus and have a doctor's prescription for the test.
The New Jersey State Policeman's Benevolent Association is opening an appointment-only drive-thru site for first responders and frontline health care workers. The newest site is at the American Dream retail complex in East Rutherford, and other sites are operating in Deptford and Somerset.
And Murphy said the testing site at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, opening Wednesday at 8 a.m., has not been reaching its daily maximum of 500 tests. He recommended it as an alternative to long lines elsewhere.
Presidential backlash
“We need the federal government and the full force of it. Financially. Health care infrastructure. The plan. And I can say with the same passion, we need a similar reality with our regional partners,” he said.
Murphy reiterated that there needs to be more and better testing before an economic plan is even considered.
There are 60-plus testing sites across the state — still not enough, in Murphy’s opinion. The Atlantic City field hospital at the Convention Center, which was to open this week, now won’t open until next week due to staffing shortages.
Murphy also signed two bills on Tuesday: One mandates 12 weeks of paid family leave over a two-year period. The other extends the tax filing deadline until July 15 and the budget deadline to Sept. 30.
The ongoing fight against unemployment
Murphy also listed a number of improvements at the Department of Labor meant to help manage the record number of unemployment claims they have received since the pandemic began.
Changes include expanding capacity at call centers, automating more processes to reduce the wait time for applicants to get a determination of their eligibility, and supplying laptops to an additional 500 labor department employees to work from home.
Any for anyone looking for work, Murphy said the state's website has a jobs portal, which lists about 50,000 jobs available at 650 essential employers.
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