Union County's Coronavirus Case Numbers And Trends This Week

UNION COUNTY, NJ — More than a third of the Union County population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccination and a fifth is fully vaccinated, officials say, but the virus continues to be a factor in the area.

Union County was named this week in a federal report as one of 12 out of 21 counties as having a rate of 2.0 to 4.9 deaths per 100,000 people between April 2 and 8. READ MORE: 12 NJ Counties With Highest Case, Fatality Rates Amid COVID: Feds

This Friday's numbers from the state indicate that Union County has had a total of 57,648 confirmed cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic, up by 1,004 cases from the previous Friday, or a 1.8 percent rise in cases. Union County has also seen 1,672 confirmed deaths, an increase of 17 more deaths since last Friday, or 1 percent.

Last Friday, the state said that Union County had had a total of 56,644 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic, up 5,578 cases from four weeks earlier. There were 1,661 confirmed deaths as of last Friday, up 60 deaths from four weeks ago.

Four weeks earlier, on Friday, March 12, the state said the county has had 51,066 total confirmed cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic, and a cumulative 1,601 confirmed deaths.

The disease’s impact is reflected in the state Department of Health's most recent "COVID-19 Activity Level Report," issued weekly. Union is in the "orange" zone.

See Patch's weekly update on where to get a vaccine in Union County.

State hospitalizations and deaths

In New Jersey on Monday, there were 27 new deaths reported since the day before. The state has seen a total of 22,323 deaths total.

As of the most recent hospitalization count on Monday, 2,261 people are hospitalized with the virus, 448 of those in critical care. There are 958 reports of CDC variants of concern.

The state's daily death toll has never declined to the level of Sept. 8, when only 2 deaths were reported in one day. New Jersey's peak daily death toll was on April 30, 2020, with 460 fatalities reported in one day. The numbers then steadily dropped during the shutdowns in the summer, until September, when they began rising again.

On April 19, all New Jersey residents 16 and over will be eligible to be vaccinated.

For Union County, as of Thursday, 204,884 residents (36.8 percent of total population) have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 119,470 (21.4 percent of total population) are fully vaccinated, local officials said.

As of Friday, across the country, approximately 565,000 Americans had died of the virus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

Here are statewide coronavirus resources:

• NJ COVID-19 Information Hub: https://covid19.nj.gov/
• General COVID-19 questions: 2-1-1
• NJ COVID-19 hotline: (800) 222-1222

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