Princeton Health Officer recommends delaying start of in-person local government meetings due to increase in COVID-19 cases
Princeton Health Officer Jeff Grosser has recommended that the municipality delay holding meetings in person, and instead continue to hold public meetings via Zoom due to the recent increase in COVID-19 cases.
“With the emergence of the highly contagious delta variant and increase in COVID-19 cases
throughout New Jersey and within Princeton, I am recommending we delay the restart of in-person
meetings until further notice,” Grosser wrote in an Aug. 18 memo to the town’s administrator.
Grosser said the Princeton Health Department and Princeton Board of Health will continue to monitor the evolving situation and revisit the return to in-person meetings when COVID19 activity levels have decreased to levels deemed to be safe. Grosser said he conferred with Princeton Board of Health officers in making his decision and they agree with his evaluation and recommendation.
Previously, officials hoped to return to in-person meetings by mid-September.
Grosser will speak briefly at the Princeton Council’s public Zoom meeting at 7 p.m. tonight. At the agenda session last week, officials debated whether to have just Grosser or the entire Board of Health weigh in and make recommendations for the meeting. Council President Leticia Fraga wanted the whole board to weigh in. Officials decided the Board of Health could submit a written report of its own by Friday at noon if the members chose to do so.
Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.
Seems reasonable that in person schooling should also be delayed or remote until vaccines are available to all age groups.
Get the kids back to school. The PPS should open August 30th like the private schools in the area. They have been out of school long enough. Parents are starting to get the bureaucracys emails about yeah back to school and yet we the parents sit with our children waiting two more weeks, policing their screen time for two more weeks, even though our schools spend $30k per child. Get the children back to school in person August 30th, pre Labor Day. Enough is enough.