Verona had its 647th positive case of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 during January, but while the number of positives continued to rise in town, it did so at a slower pace. Verona also recorded one additional death from COVID, bringing our total to 16.
January started with Verona at just 479 COVID cases since Essex County began keeping statistics in March 2020. We topped 500 positives on January 5 and 600 on January 23. By ending at 647, we had an increase of 35%, down from a surge of almost 56% in December and 44% in November.
Still the increase in positives in Verona remains higher than that of many other towns in Essex County. According to county statistics, only four of the county’s 22 towns had an increase greater than Verona’s: South Orange (35.2%), North Caldwell (36%), Glen Ridge (38.2%) and Millburn (42.2%). Newark, which has the largest number of total cases at 27,358, had only a 27.1% increase, though it did record 59 more deaths in January, bringing its total deaths to 826.
Fairfield had the lowest percentage increase in positives at 15.5%, followed by Essex Fells (19.3%), Irvington (21.1%), Maplewood (21.8%) and West Orange (22.5%).
Essex County is slowly expanding vaccinations at five sites. As of Sunday, it had administered 35,273 first doses and 3,111 second doses. The total population of the county is estimated at 799,785. The county has a website where residents can schedule free COVID tests and register for the vaccine.
Today we gave first doses of the COVID vaccine to 1,261people and second doses to 19 people at our 5 vaccination centers. That brings our 26 day total to 35,273 first doses and 3,111 second doses. #EssexCounty #PuttingEssexCountyFirst pic.twitter.com/ZehXOAvS4t
— Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr. (@Joe_D_EssexExec) January 30, 2021
