Report Shows COVID Impact: How Did Moorestown Fare

MOORESTOWN, NJ — A new Rutgers-Camden report shows how each New Jersey town was impacted by the coronavirus in 2020, including how many cases towns saw during the second wave, infection rates and how much of a spike each town saw.

The second wave of the pandemic took place from June 30 through Dec. 13, 2020. June is when the summer reopenings ramped up.

During that time, Moorestown’s infection rate was 3,890.19 per 100,000 people. It was 196th among the 561 municipalities that reported numbers statewide. Its increase was 562.50 percent, ranking it 172nd in the state.

Upper Pittsgrove Township in Salem County saw the highest increase at 6,750 percent, while Rockleigh Borough in Bergen County had the highest infection rate at 31,720.43.

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The new report issued this week by the Senator Walter Rand Institute for Public Affairs at Rutgers University–Camden unmasks the broad, regional impact of COVID-19 upon New Jersey municipalities during two waves in 2020. Read more here: Report Shows Town-By-Town NJ COVID Impact, Infection Rates Ranked

Rather than focus on county-level COVID case data, the Rutgers University–Camden research institute explores how municipalities truly fared during the first year of the pandemic.

For example, Moorestown's infection rate was higher nearby Mount Laurel, which saw 3,379.26 cases per 100,000 people, but it was lower than Cinnaminson, which had 4,268.48 per 100,000.

But Moorestown had a lower increase than both of those towns. Cinnaminson was 38th in the state at 1,430.43 percent. Mount Laurel ranked 82nd at 996.09 percent.

The new research report from Rutgers University–Camden offers a visualization of variations in COVID-19 rates across New Jersey municipalities and illustrates the reality that nearby municipalities can have COVID infection rates that are very different from each and from average rates within their counties.

"This data offers insight for those planning equitable aid allocations across the state and within counties," said Sarah Allred, a professor of psychology and faculty director of the Rand Institute, both at Rutgers University–Camden.

Rutgers-Camden acknowledged that getting the town-by-town information was difficult. Indeed, Rutgers-Camden investigated every county to get the information, and if the county didn't have data, the institution researched every town and obtained the numbers.

According to the report, Moorestown had 795 cases during the pandemic’s second wave. As of April 5, there have been 1,368 cases of the coronavirus and 80 deaths in Moorestown since the beginning of the pandemic.

With reporting by Tom Davis, Patch Staff