Essex County COVID Cases Still High, CDC Says: See Local Updates – Patch.com

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Cases of coronavirus, including the delta variant, are still on the rise in New Jersey. And Essex County remains among the areas battling a “high” spread of COVID-19, federal officials say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released an online map that rates counties across the nation according to their levels of COVID-19 transmission. The CDC uses four categories of threat level: low, moderate, substantial and high.

After several weeks at the “substantial” threshold, CDC officials bumped Essex County up to the “high” level in early August. That hasn’t changed for the latest reporting period, which covered Aug. 26 to Sept. 1.

Some health officials have pointed to the more contagious delta variant as a major factor behind the recent spread. In its weekly COVID-19 Variant Surveillance Report that ended Aug. 7, the New Jersey Department of Health noted that a whopping 94.1 percent of all variant cases were the delta variety – up from 9.7 percent in December 2020.

Meanwhile, vaccination efforts continue in the area, including at the county’s two operational vaccine centers in Newark and West Orange.

Essex County officials have been releasing cumulative COVID-19 totals for each town and city, noting that their daily report may not match state or municipal totals, and places of residence may change after investigation (here’s why).

See the previous month of case and death totals below. NOTE: Each chart also includes the number of “new cases” and “new deaths” from the previous day.