Friday, October 2, 2020

Ocean County, Lakewood officials look to stamp out high COVID-19 rate

Leaders from Ocean County and Lakewood and the local Orthodox Jewish community vowed to do what it takes to lessen the area's high level of COVID-19 infection Friday during a news conference with Gov. Phil Murphy.

The overall positivity rate in Lakewood is 27.82% and in Ocean County is 15.85%, according to the state Department of Health.

That's compared to an overall positivity rate of 2.09% to 2.89% in the state's three regions, said Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli, who said COVID-19 cases also are spiking in Stafford, Lacey and Jackson townships.

From Sept. 24 through 30, she said, 1,214 COVID-19 cases were reported in Ocean County, and 840 of those cases were in Lakewood

While no single event has been associated with the sudden high numbers, she said, large religious observances over the past several weeks may have resulted in prolonged close contact between people.

Some local leaders expressed concern that the numbers would lead to a rise in anti-Semitism, as Lakewood has a large Orthodox Jewish population.

Murphy said he will not tolerate that.

"We cannot allow anyone who has ill intentions to use this as cover — whether it’s anti-Semitism or whether it's dividing us," Murphy said. "We are one New Jersey."

Press of Atlantic city

3 comments:

  1. Please note . Many families will be returning from Orlando . It seems if they return from Philly specifically and often times other airports no one follows through with the quarantine process . These are one of the places “ this “ has returned from. Time to follow through .
    Make up for the mistakes and false sense of security ... not right for it to keep coming back .
    People have to quarantine as do their children .
    Everyone has to quarantine for 10 to 14 days if they return and be monitored for symptoms...

    That’s why the schools and Shuls and Yeshiva’s might have to close again !!! Doctors ,
    Yeshiva’s , schools , shuls batei meidrashim have to demand precautions are properly set in place ...

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  2. This started because of the out of towners coming for weddings during the summer. None of them quarantined. But Baltimore has the chutzpah to not allow Lakewooders in shul after they brought it here all summer.

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  3. My thoughts are, the average family size in the orthodox community is probably almost double the general population. The fact that we have higher numbers is very misleading. We very possibly have lower rates if you Look at amount of family units infected not by amount of people

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