Union County COVID Numbers And Trends This Week

UNION COUNTY, NJ — Deaths from coronavirus in Union County have slowed somewhat, but have not stopped, according to the weekly numbers from Friday. Meanwhile, there was good news Friday: Gov. Phil Murphy announced that 3 million people have been fully vaccinated in New Jersey. This news came on the one-year anniversary of the state's largest one-day death toll from the virus: 460 New Jerseyans from April 29 to April 30, 2020.

As of this Friday, 1,704 total Union County residents have passed away from the virus since the start of the pandemic. The number represents 15 new deaths over the past week. That's down slightly from the previous two weeks' death totals: 17 over the previous week, and 17 the week before that.

Friday's number for Union County indicates 59,358 cases since the start of the pandemic. The state readjusted its counts this week to remove any duplicate reports. The new number is still up slightly from the total the week before of 59,174.

As of Friday, total hospitalizations in Union County since the start of the pandemic were 5,225.

The disease’s impact is reflected each week in the state Department of Health's most recent "COVID-19 Activity Level Report." The report influences whether schools go remote or change their schedules, as well as other factors.

The level in Union County two weeks ago resulted Westfield High School changing plans to allow a cohort of students to move to on-site education five days a week next week. READ MORE: Westfield High School Won't Increase On-Site Hours Next Week

Find out up-to-date information on the types of vaccines and a list of where to get vaccinated in Union County here.

It's not over

While the vaccination rollout continues, the virus is still taking lives.

• In New Jersey on Thursday, there were 20 new deaths reported from coronavirus since the day before. The state has seen a total of 22,904 fatalities 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.
• 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.
• 575,270 Americans have died of the virus as of Friday, 5,000 more than a week earlier.
• 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.

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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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