Despite spike, some NJ towns’ COVID-19 cases decrease

People are hiding under the covers lately, trying to avoid the scourge of COVID-19. Those who aren’t actually hiding under the covers are doing everything they can to stay away from it, including following all of the CDC guidelines like social distancing and wearing masks. And although our state has been very successful at flattening the curve, for whatever reasons—and I’m not here to debate them—the number of actual positive coronavirus cases has spiked throughout the state.

But amid all the media fear-mongering, panic and chaos, there’s an oasis: a group of towns in New Jersey who remain blissfully spike- free. A very detailed article on patch.com lists a lot of recent statistics for new Covid-19 case and fatality rates across the state. According to the article, it’s very difficult to compile these numbers because every town has a different system for quantifying cases and every town has different protocols for releasing them.

Like everything else COVID-19 related, it’s a big fat cluster-F. But here’s what the article IS able to tell you. Forty-eight New Jersey towns have had either no new cases at all, or have actually had a decrease in new cases of coronavirus. What they’re doing differently, I cannot tell you. Perhaps they don’t have access to testing as much as they do in other towns and so new cases are not known. Or maybe people in these towns still haven’t left their houses. Whatever the reason, Let’s hope for similar news from all over New Jersey soon.

Here are the “lucky” 48: