US Justice Department says New Jersey failed veterans in state-run homes during COVID-19

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s state-run veterans homes were unprepared to keep residents safe during the COVID-19 outbreak and suffered a “systemic inability” to implement care. That’s according to a U.S. Justice Department report released Thursday. In a scathing, 43-page report, the Justice Department outlines failures at the homes in Menlo Park and Paramus, citing poor communication, a lack of staff competency that let the virus spread “virtually unchecked throughout the facilities.” The report found that even after the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department arrived in New Jersey to help in April 2020, the state Military and Veterans Affairs Department failed to implement their recommendations and otherwise reform infection control.