Chatham Township Avoided Post-Holiday COVID-19 Spike, Mayor Says

CHATHAM, NJ — Chatham Township avoided a post-December holiday spike in coronavirus cases, according to Mayor Tracy Ness. But Ness urged everyone to continue taking precautions, especially with the more contagious COVID-19 strain reported in New Jersey.

Ness reported 12 new cases in Chatham Township from Jan. 15 to Friday.

"We are past the 14 travel window from the holidays and I was happy that we did not see a spike as we did over thanksgiving and our active cases have declined from 39 to 26," Ness wrote Friday in her mayor's message.

The variant, first seen in the United Kingdom, is about 50 percent more contagious than the wild-type virus we have been seeing, according to David Cennimo, a pediatric infectious disease expert and assistant professor at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

There are other variants in South Africa, Brazil and possibly in the United States but that data is still being gathered.

Gov. Phil Murphy said Jan. 12 that people should "assume" the quicker-spreading strain is in New Jersey. But New Jersey reported its first two cases of the strain Friday — a man traveling to North Jersey who never had symptoms and an Ocean County man who recovered without hospitalization. Read more: New Coronavirus Strain Arrives In NJ

Morris County officials have reported 241 coronavirus cases in Chatham Township since the pandemic began. Chatham Borough reported 27 new cases from Jan. 8-14 in its latest update, bringing the borough to 309 total cases.

Read Ness's full letter below:

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