New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced via Twitter on Saturday that the state recorded another 957 coronavirus cases, the highest number of daily cases since May.
The new numbers come as the state is experiencing a surge in cases after a relatively tame summer. Saturday’s numbers marked the fifth time in eight days that the state has recorded over 700 cases, pushing the 14-day average up to 686 and the state’s rate of transmission to 1.24 – indicating that the virus’ spread is growing.
Essex County, where all three of Seton Hall’s campuses in South Orange, Newark and Nutley are located, recorded 62 new positive cases, while Ocean County recorded 203 new cases – the most of any county in the state.
On Friday, Murphy visited Lakewood, New Jersey in Ocean County, which is currently one of several municipalities experiencing a high uptick in its positivity rate, to hold a round table with local officials.
“What we're seeing in Ocean County,” Murphy said, “is the reason why we cannot become complacent.”
“This virus is a virus of opportunity and when we let our guard down, we give it the opportunity to rush in,” He said. “Today is about working together to close the window of opportunity to drive down the numbers here and the immediate surrounding areas and to keep moving forward as one state.”
Seton Hall has also recently seen a slight uptick in coronavirus cases, four in the last 11 days, as the University prepares to brace for a potential nationwide surge in coronavirus cases that some public health officials are predicting could begin after the Nov. 3 election.
Most recently, the University announced that it would begin conducting random surveillance testing on 5% of its on-campus resident students each week, citing a national trend of increasing cases and the coming cold weather, which may help to amplify the spread of the virus as more people move back indoors.
Nicholas Kerr can be reached at nicholas.kerr@student.shu.edu. Find him on Twitter @nickdotkerr.
