9 New Cases, 1 Death Announced June 23

To access the Herald’s local coronavirus/COVID-19 coverage, click here.
COURT HOUSE – June 23: One day after warning that young adults were being too casual about social distancing requirements, Cape May County reported nine new COVID-19 cases today, eight of which were community-based.
The county also reported the death of a 95-year-old woman from a Dennis Township long-term care facility. Her death brings COVID-19 fatalities in the county to 62.
The nine new cases included one at a long-term care facility in Dennis Township and community-based cases in Middle Township, with three, Avalon, with two, and one each in Lower Township, Ocean City and Woodbine. The county reported no new positive tests for out-of-county individuals. A number of out of county individuals may not test positive until they have returned to their homes, as was the case recently with 11 cases in Bucks County, Pa., where the health department there said a common interaction among those cases was a house party in Cape May County over the Memorial Day holiday.
County and state health officials continue to urge visitors to the shore to show proper respect for distancing and facial covering protocols.
Gov. Phil Murphy said today that the state experienced 383 additional cases in the last 24 hours, with 57 new fatalities. State totals now stand at 169,734 cases and 12,949 deaths. Murphy said many of the positive tests are coming in the 18-29 age group, with confirmed cases jumping from 12% to 22% in June. Some of the increase may be an artifact of increased testing among members of the age group, but that still indicates a strong presence of the coronavirus in the community.
Pointing to continued progress in key metrics of positivity rates at 1.96% and the rate of transmission below 1, at 0.81%, Murphy announced that amusement and water parks can reopen, at 50% of capacity by July 2. Health guidelines for those reopenings will be available soon.
Saying that the state was in the latter parts of Stage 2 in the Road Back recovery plan, Murphy noted that “no other state has as much test per-capita as New Jersey.” He urged people to continue to act responsibly.
He said “many states have gone through hell and are going back to hell. We do not want to be one of them.”
Murphy also announced a tentative agreement with the Communications Workers of America, saying the union has agreed to a plan to accept furloughs and postpone wage increases to prevent significant layoffs. The proposal will be voted on by union members later this week.