Having already settled some $69 million worth of nearly 200 COVID-19 claims from families of victims, Gov. Phil Murphy's administration is now being hit with a series of 41 lawsuits from employees of New Jersey's state-run veterans homes in Menlo Park and Paramus.

A report by NorthJersey.com said decisions made by the state, from skirting mask guidance in the early days of the pandemic to allowing or even demanding that presumptive positive COVID carriers continued to work at the facilities, eventually resulted in the deaths of almost 200 residents and two employees.

NJ.com further reported that "disciplinary threats and possible termination" were possible outcomes for those who wore masks at the veterans homes in the opening month of the pandemic in the Garden State.

It was not until March 30, 2020, NorthJersey.com reported, that universal masking was mandated by state Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli.

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Both publications reported that the lawsuits claim the state believed at first that staff wearing masks might "scare" patients and residents.

All of it led to workers being "put in a boat without a paddle," according to Roseland-based attorney Paul da Costa, who filed the complaints, according to the reports.

In October 2020, more than six months and most of those deaths into the pandemic, Gov. Phil Murphy replaced the commissioner of the state Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Maj. Gen. Jemal Beale, as well as the CEOs of Menlo Park, Elizabeth Schiff-Heedles, and Paramus, Matthew Schottlander.

But three separate investigations, also including the veterans home in Vineland, remain in limbo almost two years after that, according to NorthJersey.com, and disciplinary action has not been taken.

LOOK: The most extreme temperatures in the history of every state

Stacker consulted 2021 data from the NOAA's State Climate Extremes Committee (SCEC) to illustrate the hottest and coldest temperatures ever recorded in each state. Each slide also reveals the all-time highest 24-hour precipitation record and all-time highest 24-hour snowfall.

Keep reading to find out individual state records in alphabetical order.

What would happen to NJ if we were attacked by nuclear weapons?

We used NUKEMAP by Alex Wellerstein to see what would happen if a nuclear warhead hit New York, Philadelphia, Washington or New Jersey.

The models show what would happen in aerial detonation, meaning the bomb would be set off in the sky, causing considerable damage to structures and people below; or what would happen in a ground detonation, which would have the alarming result of nuclear fallout. The models do not take into account the number of casualties that would result from fallout.

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