Last week, 63% of Verona’s population had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine and 50% were fully vaccinated. The New Jersey Department of Health had released a map with vaccination rates by town in the hopes of getting more towns to get more people vaccinated.
As of today, the percentage Veronans having gotten one dose has edged up to 64% and the rate of those who are fully vaccinated is up to 54%. Among Verona residents age 65 or older, 74% are now fully vaccinated, up from 73% last week.
The number of new cases of COVID-19 have slowed dramatically. Verona has had only one new positive in the past week, bringing our total to 993 since the pandemic began, and the rate of increase in COVID positives is only 2.8% for the past month. The increase was just 8.99% in April, down from a 17.62% increase in March. Verona’s largest monthly percentage increase in new cases happened in December 2020, when the rate hit 55.63%. Eighteen Verona residents have died of COVID-19 since data began to be kept last year.
With many older Veronans vaccinated, attention is now turning to teenagers. On Friday, the Verona school district announced that it has partnered with Vanguard Medical Group to make the Pfizer vaccine available to teenagers. Essex County said yesterday that it would offer the Pfizer vaccine to young people at the former Kmart site in West Orange. Of the three COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States, the Pfizer shot is the only one that has been approved for people ages 12 to 17. You can register your teenager for the County vaccination here; children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. To use Vanguard Medical, you can register here.
Essex County has a long way to go to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19, however. In Newark, only 35% of the population has had one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and only 26% are fully vaccinated, up from 33% and 23% last week, according to the state data. In Irvington, only 26% of the population has now had one dose and only 18% are fully vaccinated, up from 24% and 17%, respectively, last week.
You can see the full state data map at the bottom of this page on the state Department of Health website.
