*Editor's Note: This story was updated late Friday to reflect further modifications to the legislative schedule for the week of March 16.

As New Jersey's state and federal courts implement measures in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy and the Legislature aren't leaving anything to chance either.

The coronavirus as of late Sunday had claimed the lives of two people in the state. The first was  a man from Bergen County who died on March 10, and the latest patient, a woman in her 50s died in Monmouth County on Saturday night. There were now 99 presumptive positives.

Also late Saturday, the New Jersey Department of Corrections said it was temporarily suspending all visits at state prisons and halfway houses in the next 30 days. The suspension went into effect at 5 p.m., Saturday.

Last Thursday, Murphy recommended canceling all large public gatherings of more than 250 people, calling that "part of our coordinated response to the continued outbreak and to aggressively mitigate the spread of the virus."

Late Friday afternoon, Senate President Steve Sweeney and Senate Republican Leader Tom Kean announced that "the Senate committee meetings previously scheduled for Monday and Thursday of next week, and the Senate session set for March 26, will all be rescheduled for Monday, March 23."

The rest of the statement is as follows:

The health and safety of the public will be better protected by holding the Senate's meetings on a separate date than other activities in the Statehouse, Senator Sweeney said, and holding the committee meetings and Senate session on the same day will allow all the work to be conducted in one day.

"There are a lot of unknowns about the coronavirus pandemic but we do know that minimizing the number of people gathering in one place is one of the best steps we can take to protect the public's health," said Senator Sweeney. "This schedule will allow Senate committees and the full Senate to conduct important legislative business in one day in a way that better protects the safety of the public and legislators."

The Senate committees previously scheduled for Monday, March 16 and Thursday, March 19 will be held the morning of Monday, March 23, and the Senate session set for Thursday, March 26 will be held the afternoon of March 23.

The committee meetings and Senate session will be accessible to the public via the live audio/video services of the Office of Legislative Services' website however, members of the public won't be allowed to attend in person. The committee meetings and Senate session will be open to the press corps.

Anyone who wants to submit written testimony can do so ahead of the committee meeting so that it may be considered by the committee and included in the committee's record. The new schedule will also allow more time for testimony to be submitted to the separate committees, Senator Sweeney said.

Eleven Assembly Committee Meetings scheduled for Monday have been canceled.

Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, and Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick, R-Union, announced that only "time-sensitive and vital legislation" will be voted on by the lower chamber during the week of March 16. They also said similar initiatives to reduce the spread of the virus in legislative offices are being considered, including work-from-home options for certain staff members, such as parents of children whose schools have been closed due to the coronavirus, and conducting committee hearings remotely.

On Monday, at 11 a.m., the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee is scheduled to consider bills that would:

  • Permit the use of remote or virtual classroom instruction to meet the minimum 180-day school year requirement should schools be closed due to the coronavirus;
  • Ensure students eligible for free or reduced-price breakfast and lunch plans continue to receive the meals they need when being taught remotely;
  • Require insurance carriers to cover the cost of coronavirus testing with no co-pay or deductible;
  • Establish a fund to reimburse schools for coronavirus-related cleaning;
  • Ensure insurance carriers provide coverage for business interruption;
  • Permit the Economic Development Authority to provide zero-interest, short-term loans to assist businesses in meeting payroll obligations; and
  • Ensure no employee is fired as a result of having to be quarantined.

The full Assembly is scheduled to vote on the bills at 2 p.m. that day.