By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
Active COVID-19 cases climbed by almost 50 percent in Cape May County from a week earlier.
Lower Township and Ocean City led the way with Middle Township and Upper Township not far behind.
According to the Cape May County Department of Health, the active cases among county residents had risen to 176 as of Monday, Nov. 2, down slightly from 180 cases the day before.
There were an additional nine cases in long-term care facilities and another eight active cases among non-residents.
The Department of Health reported 19 new cases on Monday, 17 on Sunday, 19 on Saturday and 34 on Friday, a day when Ocean City hit a high of 40. Lower Township had 39 that day, when each of those communities reported 11 new cases among residents in a single day.
Just a few weeks ago, the county was seeing an average of about six new cases a day.
On Oct. 27, there were 118 active cases in the county among residents, two in non-residents and four in long-term care, compared to the total of 193 as of Monday.
On Monday among residents there were 38 active cases in Lower Township, 33 in Ocean City, 32 in Middle Township and 29 in Upper Township. There were 19 cases in North Wildwood, plus four more in non-residents there.
Elsewhere in the county, all the resident cases were in single digits: six each in Sea Isle City (plus one non-resident) and Wildwood (plus two non-residents), four each in Wildwood Crest (plus two non-residents) and Dennis Township, two each in West Wildwood (plus one non-resident) and Cape May; and one in Stone Harbor.
All nine cases in long-term care were in Dennis Township.
There were no active cases in Avalon, Cape May Point, West Cape May and Woodbine.
The total number of positive cases had climbed to 1,698. There have been 94 fatalities attributed to COVID-19, but no new deaths over the past week.
Throughout New Jersey, COVID-19 cases have continued to rise.
Statewide on Monday, there were 1,379 new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 240,997. The state Department of Health has also reported 14,564 deaths from COVID-19 and another 1,793 suspected deaths.
Cape May County and Salem County remain among the least affected by COVID-19 in New Jersey. Since the pandemic began, the counties closest to New York City have suffered the most cases and most fatalities.
Nationally, there have been 565,607 cases reported in the last seven days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC COVID Data Tracker shows there have been 9,182,628 cases in the United States and 230,383 deaths since the CDC began tracking Jan. 21.