Good News About Summit Adults And COVID Vaccine: City

SUMMIT, NJ — Coronavirus cases are falling in Summit — but continue to be a factor — while the city had good vaccination news in its weekly COVID update on Friday. For the first time, the city was able to say that the majority of adults in Summit had received at least one shot of the coronavirus vaccine.

"For the first week, we have municipal immunization data to report," said the city as part of its weekly case update last Friday. "As of April 16, 61 percent of the adult population in Summit has received one dose of the vaccine and 31 percent of the adult population is fully vaccinated."

The town's weekly update last Friday also said that the Westfield Regional Health Department reported 27 new confirmed cases in Summit since the previous week.

This was lower than in the last few months. During the first week in April, 70 new cases were reported.

The age breakdown for the 27 cases April 16-22 was as follows:

• Six cases ages 18 and younger;
• Eight cases ages 19 to 29;
• Two cases ages 30 to 39;
• Five cases ages 40 to 49;
• Three cases ages 50 to 59;
• One case ages 65 to 69; and
• Two cases ages 90 to 94.

Contracted tracing reported these exposures:

• Nine cases with positive household contact;
• Eight cases unable to contact;
• Two cases with no known exposure;
• Two cases remain under investigation;
• Two cases associated with schools;
• One case with a known contact (friend);
• One case associated with team sports (university);
• One case associated with care at a medical facility; and
• One case refused interview.

Since March 2020, there have been 1,733 total cases and 24 COVID-19-related fatalities in Summit, the city said. Total case numbers are adjusted each week following contact tracing interviews.

The city said that according to local health officials, "Infection activity remains at a moderate level in Summit, while cities and counties throughout the state of NJ and our region are experiencing another week with a high rate of infection and transmission."

As of April 22 in New Jersey, more than 3.9 million residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine (44 percent of the total population), and more than 2.6 million residents have been fully vaccinated (29.6 percent of the total population).

In Union County, 352,383 vaccinations were given last week, the city said. 225,783 residents (40.5 percent of total population) have received one dose of the vaccine, and 140,633 (25.2 percent of total population) are fully vaccinated.

On Friday, a CDC Panel recommended resuming the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after reviewing reports of 13 women getting blood clots — three fatal — out of 7.98 million receiving the shot. Now, the shot will come with a warning about clotting.

It's not over

While there has been a decrease in reported cases and hospitalizations statewide, there have still been significant deaths and hospitalizations.

Most recently:

• In New Jersey on Wednesday, there were 35 new deaths reported from coronavirus since the day before. The state has seen a total of 22,884 deaths total from the virus.
• 1,768 people were hospitalized with the virus in New Jersey as of Wednesday, 375 of those in critical care. This is down from 2,261 people a week ago Monday.
• However, the state's daily death toll has not declined to the level of Sept. 8, when only 2 deaths were reported in one day. New Jersey's peak daily death toll on April 30, 2020 was 460 fatalities reported in one day. The numbers then steadily dropped during the shutdowns in the summer, until September, when they began rising again.

Across the country, more than 574,000 Americans have died of the virus.

You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map, and see how each county is doing with this CDC link.

Want to be the first in Summit to get breaking news alerts, or a daily morning newsletter of news in your town? You can sign up for Patch alerts and/or a free a daily digest of news here: Sign up and choose your preferences.

Got news? Email caren.lissner@patch.com. Got photos? Please include express written permission from the photographer for us to use them. To be the first to get free news alerts with breaking stories in your town, or to get a free local newsletter each morning, sign up for Patch breaking news alerts or daily newsletters.