{"id":7015,"date":"2021-09-30T04:39:28","date_gmt":"2021-09-30T08:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=7015"},"modified":"2021-09-30T04:40:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T08:40:14","slug":"officials-say-ocean-county-coronavirus-surge-has-plateaued","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2021\/09\/officials-say-ocean-county-coronavirus-surge-has-plateaued\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials Say Ocean County Coronavirus Surge Has ‘Plateaued’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Coronavirus<\/a>

Coronavirus (Image: CDC)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ocean County is still dealing with a number of municipalities with vaccination rates below the state\u2019s threshold goal of 70 percent, but the number of new cases seems to have reached a plateau, County Commissioner Gerry P. Little said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are seeing a bit of a plateau of cases in the mid-200s,\u201d Little said, referencing the number of new cases confirmed each day, county-wide. \u201cIt\u2019s been approximately that way for a week and a half. It\u2019s concerning, but we\u2019re not seeing a major spike.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county added 201 cases Wednesday, plus one death. Presently, 20 out of the county\u2019s 33 municipalities have at least one active case. Twenty-three long term care centers in the county have at least one active case among residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery sadly, six people overnight [Tuesday] died in our nursing homes,\u201d said Little, at Wednesday\u2019s work session meeting of the Board of Commissioners.<\/p>\n

The good news, officials say, is that vaccination rates are rising. Last month, five municipalities were flagged as having low vaccination rates. It dropped to three \u2013 Lakewood, Jackson and Lacey townships \u2013 two weeks ago, and has since fallen to two. Jackson is just below the 70 percent threshold, however Lakewood and Lacey are still lagging the county as a whole, with 42 and 61 percent, respectively, of residents above age 12 vaccinated<\/p>\n

Ocean County is continuing its organizational efforts to deliver a third dose of certain vaccines when they are authorized to do so. Pfizer has received federal approval for a booster, however demand has been low thus far locally.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo far, the CDC has only approved Pfizer, and we do not have a large demand for Pfizer here in Ocean County since most of our Health Department vaccinations were from Moderna, which hasn\u2019t been approved yet,\u201d Little explained. \u201cWe\u2019re waiting on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The county has begun operating a vaccine clinic at Toms River High School North again, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. A second clinic is operating at Southern Regional Middle School, Manahawkin, Tuesdays from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and a third is operating at the Ocean County Transportation Services Complex in Manchester each Monday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Appointments<\/a> are preferred, but walk-ins are welcome, officials said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to convey our deepest appreciation to the Toms River school district and the Southern Regional school district because they have, again, donated their space for our fixed sites,\u201d Little said.<\/p>\n

The county is planning 34 mobile clinics for the traditional flu shot, where coronavirus vaccines will also be available. Ultimately, officials urged residents to speak with their physician to determine the best course of protection from the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach person in this room is different,\u201d said Commissioner Joseph Vicari. \u201cTo maximize the effectiveness, you should have the information from your doctor that\u2019s right for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ocean County has tallied 77,097 cases of the novel coronavirus and 2,120 deaths.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ocean County is still dealing with a number of municipalities with vaccination rates below the state\u2019s threshold goal of 70 percent, but the number of new cases seems to have reached a plateau, County Commissioner Gerry P. Little said Wednesday. \u201cWe are seeing a bit of a plateau of cases in the mid-200s,\u201d Little said, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[971,1168,1080,11],"class_list":["post-7015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ocean-county-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-coronavirus-vaccine","tag-featured","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/outbreak-coronavirus-world-1024x506px.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}