By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – Cape May County continues to show small numbers of COVID-19 cases and even more among non-residents visiting here.
Health officials also reminded residents and visitors of the quarantine required of individuals traveling to New Jersey or returning from 19 states, including Delaware. Those individuals are advised to self-quarantine for 14 days.
On Monday, July 13, the Cape May County Department of Health announced the county death toll from the coronavirus had reached 73 with 847 residents infected. On Monday, the death of a 73-year-old man from Lower Township was announced.
There were five cases in the county – two each in Lower and Middle townships and one in North Wildwood, and six cases among non-residents. The two townships also had the most active cases with 24 in Lower and 16 in Middle. Upper Township had 12 active cases as of Monday but all the other towns were in single digits except for Cape May Point and West Wildwood, which had no active cases.
North Wildwood had eight cases, Cape May had six, Avalon five, Dennis Township four, Ocean City three, with two each in West Cape May and Wildwood and one each in Sea Isle City, Stone Harbor and Woodbine.
In addition to the 87 active cases in the communities, there are another 29 in long-term care, including 11 in Dennis Township and 10 in Middle Township. There were five in Woodbine, two in Lower and one in Ocean City.
There were 124 total active cases among non-residents.
While resident cases of COVID-19 have remained relatively low since mid-June, surpassing 10 only on three days, the non-resident cases have been higher, at times above 25.
On Sunday, county health officials reported only two new cases among residents – in North Wildwood and Upper Township – but six among non-residents.
On Saturday, there were eight cases among residents, but 12 among non-residents.
On Friday, July 10, 10 residents tested positive for the coronavirus, including four in Upper Township, and six new non-resident cases. A 64-year-old Middle Township man died from COVID-19.
On Thursday, it was the largest number in the past week, with 13 new cases in the communities and 16 non-residents testing positive. On that day, there were four new cases in Upper Township and Middle Township.
On Wednesday, July 8, health officials said there were 13 non-residents testing positive and eight residents, including five in Lower Township.
And on Tuesday, July 7, there were two fatalities, a 79-year-old woman from Ocean City and an 89-year-old woman from Dennis Township, along with 12 new cases in the communities and eight among non-residents.
According to New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli on Monday, the rate of transmission of COVID-19 was the highest in the southern part of the state.
Self-quarantine
According to county health officials, the 14-day quarantine travel advisory applies to travel from states identified as having a positive COVID-19 test rate higher than 10 per 100,000 residents or have a 10 percent or higher positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average (“impacted states”).
State guidelines provided by county health officials state:
“Travelers and those residents who are returning from impacted states should self-quarantine at their home, or a hotel or other temporary lodging. Individuals should leave the place of self-quarantine only to seek medical care/treatment or to obtain food and other essential items. As one example, no one who has traveled to or from a state on the COVID-19 hotspot list should be participating in or attending an in-person or drive-in graduation ceremony.
“The self-quarantine is voluntary, but compliance is expected. Travelers and residents returning from impacted states typically will not need to check-in with public health officials, unless they are otherwise involved in contact tracing efforts or required to do so by their employer or any other federal, state or local law or order. It is expected that individuals will follow the recommendation to self-quarantine.
“The travel advisory does not apply to any individual passing through designated states for a limited duration through the course of travel. Examples of such brief passage include but are not limited to: stopping at rest stops for vehicles, buses, and/or trains; or layovers for air travel, bus travel, or train travel.”
Those states include: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.