The nursing home issue in New Jersey's high Covid death per capita number

Following the March 8, 2021 post in IPBiz about New Jersey Governor Murphy's appearance on CBS "Face the Nation" on March 7 [ see Governor Murphy on "Face the Nation" on March 7, 2021. The nursing home issue. ], there have been two relevant subsequent articles in the Newark Star-Ledger. One suggests that in March 2020, New Jersey nursing home officials were verbally told of the need to segregate Covid patients, even though the written March 31 order does not reflect this. The second shows that this is going to be a campaign theme in the upcoming governor election.

As an initial matter, there has been a "lack of transparency" issue:

Associated Press requests last year for written and electronic communications among officials about the coronavirus were denied as “overbroad,” a kind of catch-all under the state’s Open Public Records Act that permits officials to shield certain information.
The administration also cited emails among the governor’s staff as privileged under the law because they were “inter-agency” and “consultative or deliberative,” additional carve-outs that prevent the release of documents under the law.

link: https://www.nj.com/politics/2021/03/murphy-administration-has-blocked-some-information-from-the-public-during-covid-pandemic-ap-finds.html

From the Newark Star-Ledger on March 17, 2021 (note reference to what was told during the March 31, 2020 meeting and compare to image within IPBiz post of March 8, 2021)

AND, as to the political issue, from the Star-Ledger on March 18, 2021: