Middlesex County Still In "High" Zone For COVID Activity

Middlesex County stubbornly remains in the "orange" zone for COVID activity spread, meaning cases are still considered "high" in the county.

This is reflected in the state Department of Health's most recent "COVID-19 Activity Level Report," which is issued weekly. The most recent report, released Thursday, says Middlesex County is in the "orange zone."

Some parts of New Jersey, such as South Jersey and western counties such as Sussex and Hunterdon, used to be in the yellow zone. They are now back up to orange.

Middlesex County, however, has always been in the high zone. In the start of the year, it was in the "very high" or red zone.

If the county is in the "orange" zone, it means it has a rate of 10 to 25 cases per 100,000 people. "Yellow" means the county has a rate 1 to 10 cases per 100,000 people.

As of Friday, Middlesex County had 315 new reported cases in the last 24 hours, for 83,270 total cases and three deaths in the past 24 hours, for 1,954 total deaths.

If the overall activity is at a "orange" level, state officials say, school districts in those counties would have to take more serious steps — such as quarantining or even shutting down schools — if a child shows the symptoms of COVID-19.

Here are the case and death counts for each town in Middlesex County: https://discovermiddlesex.com/...