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COURT HOUSE – The county reported 11 Covid-related deaths for the seven days ending yesterday (Dec. 22-28). That is the most Covid-associated fatalities in any seven-day period since the pandemic began.
The age range was 40 years, from a 53-year-old Lower Township man to a 93-year-old Dennis Township woman. County fatalities total 134 residents.
The new case numbers continue to rise, but there is an equally steep increase in the number of individuals whom county health officials removed from quarantine. Even with 315 new confirmed cases of Covid this past week, the number of active cases declined, as 323 infected individuals recovered sufficiently to be off quarantine.
Roughly 86% of all confirmed cases since March are off quarantine; 11%, or 470 individuals, represent active cases. County resident fatalities are 3% of all confirmed cases.
It appears to be the case that most infected individuals recover. It is also true that hospitalizations are up across the state and fatalities are approaching numbers not seen since May.
At Cape Regional Medical Center, there are 28 confirmed Covid patients, seven of whom are in intensive care, with two on ventilators, as of Dec. 28. This is a slight decrease from the 33 hospitalizations last week, with nine in the intensive care unit (ICU).
Although hospitals are seeing an increase in Covid patients, the success rate is better than in the spring. Knowledge gained enabled medical centers to better treat Covid patients.
One result is the report on the state Covid dashboard of almost 40,000 discharged patients since April 1, including 12,000 of those recovered being patients over 75.
The virus’s spread in this second wave is beyond the recorded numbers from spring, although that may be an artifact of the state not having the testing capacity to know how many people were infected.
Since the fall weather began nudging people indoors, the county’s case count increased dramatically. The highest number of cases reported by county officials before November was 314, in April. In November, reports totaled 1,192 new cases. In December, with three days remaining, the count for the month is 1,304.
Over the 10 months of the pandemic, with daily official press releases, the last two months, November and December, accounted for over 60% of all reported cases.
The county is reporting 26 nonresident cases, the large majority of which are associated with an outbreak at the U.S. Coast Guard Training Center Cape May.
The vaccine is here and being administered to frontline health care workers. According to the Cape May County Health Department, vaccinations at long-term care facilities will begin the first week of January.
The Stone Harbor Office of Emergency Management informed Stone Harbor Borough Council that 34 first responders in the island community would get the vaccine, beginning sometime in January. These are signs of an expanding population for vaccination.
A vaccine development effort by an American company, Novavax, is reportedly entering Phase 3 trials, with a vaccine modeled after modern flu vaccines called a protein subunit vaccine. The company said it would conduct an inclusive trial, increasing the percentage of subjects over 65 and including more minority representation than the Phase 3 tests of other companies.
The state Dec. 15 released an updated Covid vaccination plan (https://bit.ly/3hoXv7T). The plan describes the phased approach, incorporating priority designations, which will likely take months to reach a level of broad vaccination levels in the general population.
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of new vaccines will speed that process, but most of the population will remain unvaccinated through the winter. The goal for New Jersey remains 70% vaccination of the adult population by June 2021.
As cases mount, county health officials continue to urge residents to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations and to “avoid indoor spaces as much as possible, particularly ones that aren’t well ventilated.”
To contact Vince Conti, email vconti@cmcherald.com.
