N.J. coronavirus death toll climbs to 9,310 with 139,945 total cases. More than 1,400 new positive tests announced.

By Matt Arco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

New Jersey has now lost 9,310 lives to the coronavirus outbreak as the total number of cases continued to climb to 139,945, according to the latest update from state health officials on Monday.

The totals include more than 50 new deaths and more than 1,400 new cases reported in the last 24 hours, though officials have cautioned about lags in reporting particularly over the weekend.

Gov. Phil Murphy has continued to say that the near-lockdown orders in place for several weeks have slowed the outbreak with the number of new daily cases trending downward.

In addition, New Jersey’s have reported decreasing number of patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases since a peak around mid-April. The state was missing data for two of 71 hospitals as of Sunday night, making comparisons to previous days incomplete. At least 4,100 patients remain hospitalized with around 1,000 on ventilators.

The county-by-county breakdown of cases includes:

  • Bergen County: 17,028 with 1,358 deaths
  • Hudson County: 16,936 with 971 deaths
  • Essex County: 15,602 with 1,426 deaths
  • Passaic County: 14,645 with 747 deaths
  • Union County: 14,164 with 875 deaths
  • Middlesex County: 14,036 with 794 deaths
  • Ocean County: 7,569 with 547 deaths
  • Monmouth County: 6,988 with 445 deaths
  • Morris County: 5,876 with 518 deaths
  • Mercer County: 5,393 with 340 deaths
  • Camden County: 4,959 with 227 deaths
  • Somerset County: 4,093 with 335 deaths
  • Burlington County: 3,665 with 200 deaths
  • Gloucester County: 1,690 with 83 deaths
  • Atlantic County: 1,533 with 77 deaths
  • Cumberland County: 1,363 with 40 deaths
  • Warren County: 1,047 with 104 deaths
  • Sussex County: 1,033 with 128 deaths
  • Hunterdon County: 723 with 45 deaths
  • Cape May County: 462 with 32 deaths
  • Salem County: 411 with 18 deaths

Another 729 cases are being investigated to determine where the person resides.

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Latest Release, Ranking Of Town-By-Town NJ Coronavirus Cases

Many NJ towns ranked surprisingly high on the coronavirus case list. Here are the latest NJ town-by-town numbers, ranked highest to lowest.

By Tom Davis, Patch Staff  May 11, 2020
70s, 80s, beautiful, bed, bedroom, blue, bright, caregiver, caring, clinic, clinical, comfort, comforting, doctor, elderly, female, friendly

NEW JERSEY – Many New Jersey towns rank surprisingly high on New Jersey’s coronavirus case list — and it’s not just the communities that have been at the focal point of the outbreak since it began in March.

Patch put together a list showing all the towns and their latest reported number of coronavirus cases, ranking them based on population. Another list ranks the total cases that Patch compiled on its own, since the state of New Jersey has never provided a list 

The lists show the new coronavirus is not just a North Jersey problem, an urban problem and one that’s primarily a factor in the Garden State’s densely populated areas.

This is a problem that all New Jersey continues to face, even as the overall new daily coronavirus numbers in the state continue to sink. 

Indeed, the per-capita rates in bucolic, middle- to upper-income towns such as Morristown and Deal are among the highest in New Jersey.

The disease is virtually everywhere — 555 of New Jersey’s 565 communities have it — and parts of South Jersey continue to show a faster rate of growth, while the curve in North Jersey – where the disease originally surged – has flattened.

The amount of days it takes for cases to double, for instance, is now much slower in North Jersey now than it is in southern New Jersey

Getting the town-by-town information has been difficult. Patch investigated every county to get the information. If the county didn’t have data, Patch researched every town and obtained the numbers.

Here’s what you should know about how forthcoming — or secretive — many of the towns have been:

  • Eighteen of New Jersey’s 21 counties provide maps and lists that show where the cases are.
  • Others, such as Union and Hudson counties, leave it up to the towns to report numbers, and many don’t use the most updated systems or technology to release those numbers.
  • Atlantic County has relaxed its initial defiance to providing the numbers, but it still delivers them in a unique way via somewhat vaguely worded news releases. Patch attempted to provide the most accurate numbers by simply adding them.
  • One Union County town, Winfield, hasn’t released new numbers in more than a week.

Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson even said his region made a conscious decision early on not to provide this information to the media “to help protect our full time, permanent residents from an influx of second homeowners and out-of-towners who could potentially carry the virus from areas of outbreak including New York, North Jersey and the Philadelphia suburbs.”

As of Sunday, only 10 towns had not reported a case. They were:

  • Cape May Point
  • Elsinboro
  • Harvey Cedars
  • Mantoloking
  • Pine Valley
  • Shiloh Township
  • Stockton
  • Stone Harbor
  • Tavistock
  • Walpack Township

Here are all the towns ranked from top to bottom, based on the rate of cases per 1,000 people and using the latest numbers, which largely came from Friday and Saturday (the total case list is below):

  1. Rockleigh 181.00
  2. Woodland Township 111.93
  3. Prospect Park 48.80
  4. Teterboro 46.73
  5. Union City 44.96
  6. Deal 44.83
  7. Paterson 42.87
  8. Passaic 39.54
  9. Elizabeth 38.45
  10. Perth Amboy 37.66
  11. Plainfield 37.36
  12. Frelinghuysen 37.36
  13. Lopatcong Township 37.16
  14. North Bergen 37.15
  15. West New York 36.19
  16. Paramus 34.19
  17. Haledon 33.58
  18. Dover 33.50
  19. Andover Township 32.52
  20. Clifton 29.67
  21. Cedar Grove 29.13
  22. Freehold 29.02
  23. Linden 28.45
  24. Hillside 27.86
  25. Lincoln Park 27.66
  26. Hackensack 27.65
  27. Union Township (Union) 27.61
  28. Bergenfield 27.29
  29. Harrison (Hudson) 26.84
  30. Woodland Park 26.74
  31. New Brunswick 26.14
  32. Kearny 26.05
  33. Rochelle Park 26.01
  34. Roselle 25.99
  35. Secaucus 25.84
  36. Englewood 25.73
  37. East Orange 25.71
  38. Union Township (Hunterdon) 25.70
  39. New Milford 25.46
  40. Orange 25.37
  41. Lodi 25.31
  42. Bound Brook 25.27
  43. Emerson 25.10
  44. Teaneck 24.96
  45. Morristown 24.77
  46. East Newark 24.77
  47. Elmwood Park 24.71
  48. Belleville 24.54
  49. Carteret 24.53
  50. Totowa 24.01
  51. Jersey City 23.69
  52. Fairview 23.69
  53. Dunellen 23.48
  54. Moonachie 23.37
  55. Garfield 23.05
  56. Saddle River 23.04
  57. Maywood 22.79
  58. Hightstown 22.54
  59. Irvington 22.45
  60. Wanaque 22.41
  61. Newark 22.27
  62. Wayne 22.18
  63. Bloomingdale 22.09
  64. Wharton 22.08
  65. West Orange 21.61
  66. Trenton 21.17
  67. Saddle Brook 20.98
  68. Hawthorne 20.96
  69. Oradell 20.90
  70. South Hackensack 20.75
  71. Victory Gardens 20.28
  72. Weehawken 20.03
  73. North Haledon 19.77
  74. Lakewood 19.75
  75. Ridgefield Park 19.72
  76. Bogota 19.61
  77. Rahway 19.51
  78. Bloomfield 19.40
  79. Roselle Park 19.38
  80. Woodcliff Lake 19.26
  81. South Toms River 19.21
  82. South Plainfield 19.12
  83. North Brunswick 18.57
  84. Pompton Lakes 18.46
  85. Cliffside Park 18.45
  86. Upper Pittsgrove Township 18.34
  87. Jamesburg 18.16
  88. Penns Grove 18.16
  89. Matawan 18.13
  90. West Caldwell 17.98
  91. Eatontown 17.98
  92. Woodlynne 17.84
  93. Englishtown 17.81
  94. East Windsor 17.66
  95. Green Brook 17.60
  96. Hammonton 17.57
  97. Fair Lawn 17.44
  98. Cranford 17.38
  99. Park Ridge 17.26
  100. South Amboy 17.14
  101. Little Ferry 16.99
  102. Westwood 16.96
  103. Mansfield Township (Warren) 16.93
  104. Guttenberg 16.79
  105. Franklin Township (Somerset) 16.68
  106. Woodbridge 16.65
  107. Fairfield Township (Essex) 16.53
  108. Freehold Township 16.37
  109. Oakland 16.37
  110. Wyckoff 16.31
  111. Lyndhurst 16.30
  112. Dumont 16.28
  113. Ridgefield 16.09
  114. Hasbrouck Heights 16.04
  115. North Arlington 16.03
  116. Nutley 15.97
  117. Kenilworth 15.93
  118. Wood-Ridge 15.86
  119. Mine Hill 15.73
  120. Edison 15.72
  121. Woodbine 15.66
  122. South River 15.23
  123. Absecon 15.20
  124. Willingboro 15.15
  125. Camden 15.00
  126. Burlington Township 14.88
  127. Peapack-Gladstone 14.81
  128. Middlesex Borough 14.72
  129. Carlstadt 14.70
  130. Boonton Township 14.62
  131. Alpine 14.54
  132. Neptune Township 14.46
  133. Helmetta 14.45
  134. Rockaway Borough 14.37
  135. Livingston 14.24
  136. Keansburg 14.20
  137. Toms River 14.02
  138. Sayreville 13.91
  139. Berkeley Heights 13.86
  140. Bridgeton 13.85
  141. West Milford 13.78
  142. East Rutherford 13.73
  143. White Township 13.73
  144. Frankford Township 13.62
  145. Monroe Township (Middlesex) 13.54
  146. Wallington 13.47
  147. Old Bridge Township 13.44
  148. Red Bank 13.37
  149. Piscataway 13.33
  150. Ewing Township 13.17
  151. Long Branch 13.10
  152. North Plainfield 13.08
  153. Manchester 13.05
  154. Holmdel 13.03
  155. Roseland 12.99
  156. Greenwich Township (Warren) 12.97
  157. Clark 12.94
  158. Franklin Lakes 12.89
  159. Hamilton Township (Mercer) 12.82
  160. Caldwell 12.80
  161. Watchung 12.76
  162. Waldwick 12.74
  163. Hazlet 12.71
  164. Deptford 12.71
  165. Brick 12.68
  166. Jackson 12.65
  167. Hope Township 12.41
  168. Cresskill 12.37
  169. East Brunswick 12.30
  170. Manville 12.25
  171. Springfield (Union County) 12.24
  172. Hackettstown 12.21
  173. Parsippany 12.20
  174. Berkeley Township 12.01
  175. Boonton 11.92
  176. Morris Township 11.88
  177. South Bound Brook 11.87
  178. Norwood 11.86
  179. Shrewsbury Borough 11.74
  180. Carneys Point 11.69
  181. Chatham Township 11.66
  182. Leonia 11.63
  183. Midland Park 11.57
  184. Belvidere 11.53
  185. Mendham Borough 11.53
  186. River Edge 11.45
  187. Pequannock 11.45
  188. Palisades Park 11.43
  189. Aberdeen 11.41
  190. Fort Lee 11.38
  191. East Hanover 11.34
  192. Keyport 11.32
  193. Pemberton Township 11.20
  194. Lakehurst 11.18
  195. Fanwood 11.18
  196. Lindenwold 11.06
  197. Ridgewood 11.04
  198. Raritan Borough 11.03
  199. Hanover 10.91

Click here to see death totals for all 555 towns reporting plus total cases by town.

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Pennsylvania coronavirus update: Cases cross the 55,000 mark

By RYAN KNELLER THE MORNING CALL |MAY 09, 2020 | 12:07 PM

More than two months after Pennsylvania’s first coronavirus case was diagnosed, the state’s case count reached 55,316 on Saturday, including a total of 3,688 deaths.

The statewide totals represent an increase of 1,078 cases and 72 deaths since the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s briefing on Friday.

The Lehigh Valley had 68 new cases — 29 in Lehigh County and 39 in Northampton County, with 11 new deaths — six in Lehigh and five in Northampton. The Valley’s case total is 5,530, with 278 deaths, though state death totals have been lagging behind county reports.

Most of the patients hospitalized and most deaths in the state have been people 65 or older, and two-thirds of the deaths have been in nursing homes.

Schuylkill County tells governor it’s going rogue, easing coronavirus restrictions without permission

The latest numbers were reported by the state Health Department just as restrictions were eased in 24 counties by Gov. Tom Wolf, who shut down the state about two weeks after the virus surfaced here. In those counties, mostly in northern and central Pennsylvania where populations are comparatively low, stay-at-home orders were lifted Friday and retail stores were allowed to open. But people there are still told to practice social distancing and wear masks, and restaurant dining rooms remain closed.

Next Friday, 13 more counties, mostly in Western Pennsylvania, will go from red to yellow, in the governor’s three-phase approach to reopening the state.Advertisement

“As we prepare to move a number of counties from red to yellow, we need all Pennsylvanians to continue to follow the social distancing and mitigation efforts in place,” Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said Saturday in a news release. “We must continue to protect our most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, which includes our seniors, those with underlying health issues, our health care workers and our first responders. I am proud of the work that Pennsylvanians have done so far, but we cannot stop now, we must continue to take the necessary steps to protect ourselves from COVID-19.”

Wolf on Thursday extended the stay-at-home order for the rest of the state until June 4. House Republicans blasted the decision and called for the widespread lifting of restrictions.

The governor has not said if the order might be lifted earlier in the Lehigh Valley, though some local legislators have pressed him to do so.

According to state Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton County, some infectious disease experts believe the region could safely have some restrictions lifted.

“The trend is positive. The peak was like three weeks ago,” Boscola said of the pandemic’s effect on the region. “I always felt the Lehigh Valley should go into yellow sooner rather than later.”

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N.J. coronavirus deaths increase to 9,116 with 137,085 total cases.

Updated 2:48 PM; Today 1:10 PM

Murphy coronavirus briefing 2020-04-28
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy says the state has made steady progress in its battle against the coronavirus, but he is urging residents to continue social distancing.Michael Mancuso | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

By Brent Johnson and Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Seven weeks after Gov. Phil Murphy ordered residents to stay home and non-essential businesses to close to fight the spread, New Jersey’s death toll from the coronavirus increased to at least 9,116 fatalities Saturday, with state officials reporting at least 137,085 total cases since the outbreak started in early March.

Officials confirmed another 166 deaths attributed to COVID-19 and 1,759 new positive tests in the 9 million-resident Garden State, which has more cases and deaths than any U.S. state but New York.

Murphy said the daily number of cases and hospitalizations keeps dropping. But he has yet to give a definitive timeline for gradually peeling back his near-lockdown orders, saying the state risks the numbers jumping again if reopening is rushed. He has called on residents to continue social distancing and wearing face masks when going out to stores or parks.

This is the fourth straight day there were fewer than 2,000 new positive COVID-19 tests announced, even though deaths are up.

Murphy said the state is “seeing the most progress” in the number of positive tests that come back each day. It fell from the 50% range a month ago to 27% on Monday, he said.Governor Phil Murphy✔@GovMurphy

For the latest tests which we can assign a collection date to – in this case May 5th – that rate had dipped to 27 percent.

We’re making progress.

View image on Twitter

The governor also said the total number of patients in intensive care is getting better, but not at the rate “we’d like to see.”

“We are not out of the woods, folks,” Murphy added during his daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton.

About half of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have come at longterm care facilities, such as nursing homes and veterans homes. There were 4,825 deaths at the facilities as of Friday, officials said — 124 more than the day before.

Meanwhile, more than half of the state’s known fatalities have had underlying conditions, according to the state’s coronavirus tracking website.

On Friday, the state reported a 4-year-old girl with an underlying medical condition was the first child in New Jersey to die from COVID-19 complications. Officials declined to provide additional details about the child’s death, including which town or county she was from.

On Saturday, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said there is “no indication at this point that the death was related to Kawasaki,” a rare disease that has been linked to children infected with COVID-19. Persichilli and Murphy, however, would not disclose that the underlying medical condition was.

“This is a very specific situation with this blessed little kid,” Murphy said, adding he would not release any other details about how the child died.

There have been a total of 273,375 COVID-19 tests performed in New Jersey, with a positivity rate of 38.7%, according to the state’s coronavirus tracking website.

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Treasury agrees to modify safe harbor deadline for some renewable projects

By Kelsey Misbrener | Solar Power World
May 8, 2020

The Department of the Treasury responded to a request from a bipartisan group of senators to extend the ITC safe harbor deadline by one year for energy projects that started construction in 2016 or 2017, saying in a letter that it “plans to modify the relevant rules in the near future.”

“We are pleased about the Treasury Department’s action to advance clean energy projects. While this mostly applies to wind projects, flexible policies such as this one that unlock clean energy are very positive and we urge Congress to take a similar approach to developing legislation that unleashes new solar and wind projects and the economic growth that comes with them,” said Dan Whitten, VP of public affairs at SEIA, in a statement.

“We are encouraged by the Treasury Department’s letter announcing its intent to modify time-sensitive safe harbor deadlines for renewable energy tax incentives,” said Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE), in a statement. “Extending these safe harbor deadlines would be immensely helpful as the renewable sector has been hit hard these last couple of months by supply chain disruptions, shelter-in-place orders and other significant pandemic-related delays. We look forward to further detail on this critical issue, and extend our appreciation to the Treasury Department for this important step, which will help the renewable sector continue as a key economic driver through this downturn, and an effective climate solution over the long haul.”

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