Union County's Coronavirus Cases Up 2.5 Percent Since Last Week

UNION COUNTY, NJ — Coronavirus cases continue to have an impact on Union County, according to this week's data. Cases were up 2.5 percent since last Friday, and deaths increased by .8 percent, with 13 new fatalities countywide.

The state said on Friday, March 19, that Union County has seen a total of 52,361 total confirmed cases of the virus since the start of the pandemic, which is 1,295 new cases since last week. That's a 2.5 percent increase in cases since last week, a slightly higher rate than the week before.

The state also said there have been 1,614 confirmed deaths, or 13 more fatalities since last week. That's a rate of .8 percent (less than 1 percent), showing that while cases are increasing at close to the same rate as the previous week, the death rate is falling slightly.

Last 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. Those numbers represented an increase of 2.3 percent. The fatality total increased by 20 deaths, or 1.3 percent, since the previous week.

On Friday, March 5, Union County had reported a total of 49,881 confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic and 1,581 confirmed deaths. That was a 2.6 percent increase in cases since the previous week, and a 1 percent increase in deaths.

The week before that, the county reported 48,598 confirmed cases of the virus since the beginning of the pandemic, an increase of 2 percent since the previous week. The county also reported a death toll of 1,564, a 2 percent increase in the weekly death rate over the previous week's numbers.

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

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

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

State hospitalizations and deaths

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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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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