It is not an exaggeration to say Cape May County had been a leader in New Jersey during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Credit goes first to the Cape May County Board of Commissioners, then it filters through other public officials at the county and community levels all the way down to the residents.
This isn’t opinion.
It’s backed up by emperical evidence.
The county commissioners, until this year known as freeholders, were unequivocal in taking a strong stand early in the pandemic, which hit the U.S. in March 2020.
Although the winter timing was right to ask visitors to stay away to avoid spreading the coronavirus to local residents, it can’t be easy at any point to make that call in a place that relies on outsiders for its tourist economy.
It sounded harsh at the time, but asking tourists and second-home-owners to avoid coming to the county was an important move. It’s obvious many people ignored the advice, but we know many others heeded it.
That put Cape May County in the position to consistently have among the fewest number of positive coronavirus test results and fatalities compared to counties throughout the state. A large part of that is due to the small population here, but much can also be chalked up to taking a strong stance early. That is borne out by the fact that the county saw a large influx of tourists as expected during the summer season and still kept its numbers in check.
The county commissioners didn’t use the quiet time to sleep. They led by working up their own business plan to get Cape May County’s economy going again in stages, done with safety in mind, but allowing the tourism economy and other businesses to start reopening.
The plan gained the support of their counterparts in Atlantic County and was presented to the governor, but unfortunately languished on the governor’s desk.
We believe small businesses, retailers, restaurants and more should have been allowed more leeway to reopen earlier to save their season, especially at the Jersey shore where the tourism season is shorter and businesses have little time to make enough money to survive the year. We believe it could have been done safely given that big box retailers and supermarkets were doing business on a much larger scale.
Flash forward and the county has again proved to be a leader.
While the coronavirus surge that started in the late fall has greatly increased numbers of cases and fatalities in Cape May County, it is part of a statewide and nationwide trend. Yet the numbers in Cape May County have stayed relatively low compared to the rest of the state.
In the past month, as the COVID-19 vaccines have begun to be distributed, the county is leading again.
On a per-capita basis, Cape May County has the best vaccination rate in New Jersey. That is a credit in large part to county government, the Department of Health, and the other roughly dozen county departments that have assisted the Health Department in getting those COVID-19 doses into county residents’ arms.
It is only the end of January, but there is reason to be concerned about the spring and summer seasons.
The issue is getting the county residents vaccinated to ensure the spring isn’t a washout and that our tourism economy doesn’t take another battering in the summer of 2021.
We’re confident the county can do it and fear the only holdup will be getting enough vaccines from the federal government into New Jersey and from the state level down here to the county. (We want to see the same for the rest of the state’s counties.)
County officials have made it clear their priority is getting vaccines in arms to protect the residents here by getting as many as possible vaccinated by Memorial Day and to save the summer of 2021 from being a repeat of last year.
The track record here makes us optimistic that is going to happen … as long as we get all the vaccines we need.