Maplewood And South Orange To Remember Coronavirus Victims

MAPLEWOOD, NJ — The neighboring towns of Maplewood and South Orange have lost a combined 47 people (see chart below) in the last 12 months due to the coronavirus pandemic. They will hold a public gathering to remember them this Sunday evening.

Among those who passed away from the virus were:

• The first Maplewood resident to die of the virus, age 44, in late March 2020
• A retired Linden teacher, in April
• Local doctor Godwin Molokwu, 59, in June

Maplewood announced its first case of the virus a year ago this week, on March 15.

South Orange has lost 14 residents to the virus, and Maplewood, 33, as of Thursday:

The event will be held this Sunday at 7 p.m. at the pond at Meadowland Park, South Orange. Masks and social distancing are required. Volunteers will help coordinate placement around the pond.

Read more details here.

"Join us as we mark one year since the start of the pandemic, come together to remember the 530,000 lives lost and solidify our commitment to community," noted an announcement.

Here is a Patch story on where to get the vaccine in Essex County.

State hospitalization and trends

The state of New Jersey reported Wednesday that 1,895 people are still hospitalized with the virus, 407 of those in critical care, and 57 percent of those on ventilators. 38 more fatalities were reported since the day before, bringing the state's confirmed deaths to 21,530.

While the daily fatality rate is starting to drop again, it's not at the level it was six months ago, before the second wave in New Jersey when there were a total of only two coronavirus fatalities reported statewide from Sept. 7 to Sept. 8.

On April 30, 2020, the one-day death toll in New Jersey reached an all-time high of 460 residents in 24 hours.

As of Thursday, across the country, approximately 538,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

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