More than 45,000 doses have been administered across the county so far
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
Cape May County surpassed 45,000 doses administered of the COVID-19 vaccine between the county-run site in Avalon and other institutions.
According to the county Department of Health, as of Monday the county and entities including pharmacies had administered 45,210 doses. Officials cited information from the state Department of Health.
“The agency had previously reported that on March 5 there were 35,268 doses administered in the county and 40,181 doses on March 10,” the local department said in Monday’s daily COVID-19 report. It noted there have been 7,303 COVID-19 cases in the county since the pandemic began in March 2020 and 188 deaths.
For those seeking the vaccine, there are currently five locations in the county administering shots, including the Avalon site, the CVS Pharmacy in Villas, the Rite Aid in Wildwood, and ShopRites in Rio Grande and Marmora. The state website has a full listing of all of the COVID-19 vaccine locations and how to sign up for each at https://covid19.nj.gov/pages/covid-19-vaccine-locations-for-eligible-recipients.
“The Cape May County Department of Health is still awaiting additional doses to become available to expand the amount of doses available locally,” it reported Monday.
As of March 15, there were 279 active cases of the coronavirus in the county, close to what was reported the previous week.
Lower Township and Middle Township have 73 and 72 active cases, respectively, Upper Township has 30 and Ocean City has 23. There are 19 in Wildwood, 15 in Wildwood Crest, nine in North Wildwood and one in West Wildwood. Dennis Township had 18 cases.
West Cape May has five active cases, Avalon and Cape May have four each, Woodbine has three, Stone Harbor has two and Sea Isle City has one.
On Sunday the county said a study showed Cape May County had the lowest number of new COVID cases per capita in the state. The covidactnow.org website that the county has cited in the past lists Cape May County as “very high risk.” It actually lists the entire state as “very high risk” but was averaging 40 new cases. According to the website, the very high risk category means “take strong precautions to avoid exposure, including official recommended action.”
There were 26 new cases reported Monday, scattered around the county with the most in Lower (8), Middle (5) and Upper (4) townships.
Other new cases by day included March 14 (18 cases), March 13 (22 cases), March 12 (39 cases), March 11 (34 cases), March 10 (27 cases) and March 9 (28 cases).
The four deaths attributed to COVID-19 over the past week include on March 13, an 81-year-old male from Sea Isle City, a 75-year-old male from Ocean City and a 66-year-old female from Middle Township; and on March 10, a 90-year-old male from Middle Township.
State, national COVID statistics
As of Monday, New Jersey reported there have been 744,499 cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March 2020 and 21,451 confirmed deaths and 2,474 additional suspected deaths.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been 532,355 deaths in the United States attributed to the coronavirus since the pandemic began last year. There have been 29,269,590 cases over that time.
The CDC also reports that 109 million doses of vaccine have been administered across the country.