Lakewood Coronavirus Cases Pass 5,000 As Testing Rises

LAKEWOOD, NJ — As New Jersey officials promised last week, additional testing and increased messages about masks and social distancing have been pushed in Lakewood even as the number of coronavirus cases identified in the township continues to rise.

Lakewood had more than 200 new positive cases as of Thursday, New Jersey Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said, pushing the township's total to more than 5,000, according to figures from the Ocean County Health Department. The department reported 5,087 people in Lakewood had tested positive as of Thursday morning.

Some of the surge in cases is due to the increased testing that has been implemented in Lakewood, officials said. Persichilli said the state tested more than 1,000 people on Wednesday, and local health providers also have ramped up testing.

Persichilli said there will be testing at Lakewood High School Friday and Saturday, and state testing was happening at Monmouth Medical Center South on Thursday and will be at the township's municipal parking lot on Friday.

Testing will continue to increase in the coming days as the state begins to deploy the Binax rapid tests for the coronavirus. Murphy said last week that the federal government was sending 2.6 million of the tests to New Jersey over the next 12 weeks and that a portion of those would be directed to Lakewood.

Murphy said the primary driver of the new infections appears to be gatherings, specifically indoors. Persichilli said the new positive cases in Ocean County are clustered among 19- to 49-year-old white men.

Lakewood's cases began to spike in mid-September, and the town has added nearly 2,000 positives since Sept. 10. But cases in surrounding communities — including Brick, Toms River and Jackson — have seen far less dramatic increases, according to county health department figures. Brick Township has added about 100 cases since Sept. 10, and Toms River has added just over 300.

As the spike began, religious and community leaders in Lakewood have been urging people to wear masks and not crowd into places. Some places are now barring entry to those who aren't wearing masks and doors have been locked at synagogues when capacity is reached.

Earlier this week, a letter signed by more than 20 doctors in the community and published by The Lakewood Scoop urged people to avoid large gatherings for the religious holiday being celebrated and also to avoid having people from outside their immediate family in their household, to try to curtail the spread. Rabbinical leaders have continued to spread similar messages to their congregations, the Scoop has reported.

The Lakewood numbers — and those statewide — are being closely watched out of concern the state could be headed for a second wave. There have been upticks in at least six counties. But it's not just the positive tests that are garnering attention. Statewide, the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus has risen to 652, with 148 in intensive care and about 35 percent of those on ventilators.

Murphy did acknowlege that larger case counts in the last couple of days also likely reflected a bounceback in testing, which was far lower over the weekend due to the holidays.

"This virus is a virus of opportunity, and when we let our guard down, we give it the opportunity to rush in," Murphy said last week, adding the entire community is "working together to close the window of opportunity."

"I know this is hard, I know they have been doing this a long time, but wear the masks, social distance," said Dr. Edward Lifshitz, director of the state health department's Communicable Disease Service. "You need to do this continually, regularly, all the time. You always need to be thinking about it."

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