By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
Ocean City and Upper Township continue to lead Cape May County in the number of active COVID-19 cases, but the numbers have dropped since a week ago.
The same is true of new cases, which were at a high of 16 on Oct. 7, but have decreased since.
According to the Cape May County Department of Health, of the 85 active cases among county residents, Ocean City had 19 and Upper Township had 18. Lower Township and Middle Township had 14 each. There were no other communities in double digits.
There also were 10 active cases among non-residents, three in Cape May, two in Wildwood Crest and one each in Ocean City, Avalon, North Wildwood, Sea Isle City and Wildwood.
There is only one active case in long-term care, in Dennis Township.
There have been no new fatalities over the past week.
The toll from the coronavirus stands at 92 with 1,413 infected since the state started keeping statistics when the pandemic began.
Cape May County and Salem County, among the most sparsely populated in the state – at least outside of the summer tourism season – are still the lowest in New Jersey among counties in COVID-19 infections and deaths.
The counties closest to New York City have suffered the worst during the pandemic which had claimed 14,387 lives in New Jersey as of Monday, with another 1,788 suspected coronavirus deaths.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control reports there have been 214,108 COVID-19 related deaths and 7,740,934 cases, including 344,300 cases in the previous seven days.
There were four new cases reported in the county Monday, one each in Avalon, Middle Township and Ocean City, and one in long-term care in Dennis Township. There were no new cases among non-residents.
On Sunday, there were four new cases among residents, two in Lower township, one in West Cape May and one in Wildwood Crest.
On Saturday, no new cases among residents, but one non-resident case in Avalon and one long-term care case in Dennis Township.
On Friday, Oct. 9, there was only one new cases among residents. That was in Sea Isle City. There were no other new cases.
On Thursday, Oct. 8, there were nine new cases among residents, including five in Lower Township, two in Upper Township, and one each in Middle Township and Woodbine. There was only one non-resident case, in North Wildwood.
And on Wednesday, Oct. 7, there were 16 new cases among residents, including five in Upper Township, four in Middle Township, two each in Ocean City, Woodbine and Lower Township and one in Wildwood Crest. There were no new cases among non-residents or in long-term care.
