October 26, 2020 - Update From Mayor Mcgehee

Press release from the Maplewood Township:

Posted on: October 26, 2020

The Center for Disease Control has a new definition of Close Contact. Close Contact is defined as exposure (being within 6 feet) of an infected person for 15 minutes or more cumulatively during a 24-hour period in which the infected person is infectious.

Please wear/continue to wear your mask

Wearing a mask means to be courteous to your fellow neighbors and citizens and protect them from whatever you may or may not have been exposed to including the possibility of being asymptomatic. This should not be too much to ask as it is important that we all recommit and fully embrace our ability to be civil and respectful to each other as a community. This is the #newnormalmaplewood. And speaking of which, please join the #newnormalmaplewood social media campaign. Take a picture of yourself doing everyday activities while simultaneously protecting yourself and others from COVID-19. Post it on any social media of your choice using hashtag #newnormalmaplewood. Thank you

New COVID Alert NJ App

NJ has released a free and secure exposure notification app to assist with Contact Tracing and protecting our communities. Download COVID Alert NJ in the App Store or Google Play Store. Opt-in to receive “Exposure Notifications”. The app will use Bluetooth to sense any “close contacts”—other app users who are within 6 feet of you for more than 10 minute.

When your app senses a close contact, your phone will exchange a secure random code with the close contact’s phone. Note your location and name are never disclosed If you test positive for COVID-19, a public health representative will call you and ask if you’re willing to anonymously notify your “close contacts” by uploading your app’s close contact codes.

Each day, the app will compare your list of close contact codes to the list of codes associated with positive COVID-19 app users. If there’s a match you will get an Exposure Alert, along with appropriate next steps Download

Testing

LAST WEEK for Testing at the Community Pool. 8 AM - 4 PM by Appointment or Walk Up https://salernomedicalassociates.fullslate.com/

All insurances are accepted. You must bring an insurance card and a form of I.D. If you do not have insurance, please bring your social security card and testing will be free of charge.

Note: This is not a rapid test. The test is administered down the throat and a blood sample is taken to check for COVID-19 antibodies. All testing is done by professional licensed nurses. You can choose to do one test, or both.

Please check out www.essexcovid.org to register for a test in Essex County this week:

Tuesday – Branch Brook Park – Newark

Wednesday – Verona Community Pool

Thursday – Local 68 – West Caldwell

Friday – Weequahic Park -

Newark Emergency Food Distribution TOMORROW in partnership with The Maplewood Lions Club and Irvington

• Transcend Worship Center, 971 Clinton Avenue, Irvington
• Noon

Note: Residents ARE REQUIRED to wear face coverings and practice social distancing. Boxes will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Walk ups are welcome.

Thank you Samantha J. Mendenhall, Chief of Staff to Mayor Tony Vauss And Philip D. Stern, President Maplewood Lions Club

COVID Stats Update

Our cumulative numbers and October numbers through 10/26 are as follows:

Total Deaths: 27

Total Cases: 402

October new cases: 33 (ages: 13-65 with 30% of new cases are between 13-19 years old.)

Total recovered cases: 299

IMPORTANT: If you receive a positive test result and have not heard from the Maplewood Public Health Division, please contact us at (973) 762-8120 so that we can advise you on isolation, quarantine and contact tracing. Unfortunately we have learned that there is a delay in lab data entry of positive COVID cases, especially rapid antigen results, statewide. Essex County numbers have risen substantially, the 7 day Average Positive Count was 25 for the beginning of October, as of today the 7 day Average Positive Count is at 187.

State aggregate data resources:

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/ncov.shtml

Click under “daily case summary updates.”

https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/topics/covid2019_dashboard.shtml

Click the Demographics tab.

For COVID-19 questions, please call 2-1-1 or our Public Health Division at (973) 762-8120 or visit the Maplewood COVID-19 website: https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/covid19.

ELECTION

As of Oct. 26th, 10,303 BALLOT HAVE BEEN CAST in Maplewood. Overall, 196,478 Ballots have been received in Essex County with 72% via the Secure Ballot Boxes.

Haven’t voted yet? Please mail or drop your ballot in our Secure ballot box located at 1618 Springfield Ave today!

YOUR VOTE IS YOUR VOICE.

Again, here are a few key points:

Election conducted primarily through vote-by-mail ballots.

Ballots must be returned by Nov. 3rd, either by mail (postmarked by 11/03), by depositing it in a local secure ballot drop box (by 8 p.m. on 11/03), or by handing it directly to a poll worker at a polling place on Nov. 3rd (signature required).

All ballots sent are real ballots. Sample ballots can be viewed at essexclerk.com. If the County rejects a ballot, a letter will be sent to the voter stating the reason and the voter will be given an opportunity to fix the defect.

Ballots will be able to be tracked at essexclerk.com (name required) and elections.nj.gov (voter ID required).

Voting at a polling location will be by a paper provisional ballot.

All individuals with disabilities will have access to an ADA-conforming voting machine.

US CENSUS

Thank You THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

According to 2020CENSUS.GOV, our final 2020 town response rate was 78.7% which beat our final 2010 response rate of 78.2% 6 tract responses rates ranging from 92.3% to 69.9%. Congrats to South Orange for a town wide response rate of 79.6%. The county final response rate was 62.5% and the state was 69.5%

Auxiliary Police Volunteer Program

Last week the Township Committee by a vote of 3-1-1 voted to disarm our Auxiliary Police Volunteer Program and deactivate the program until we can rewrite our Standard Operating Procedures/training program that decouples any need for the use of a firearm. Again I want to thank our Auxiliary Police volunteers for their years of service and tireless dedication to date to our community, it is greatly appreciated. As part of the process toward rewriting our Standard Operating Procedures/training program, this week I will be sitting down with our Police Chief and Town Administrator. I have great confidence in the current leadership of our police department led by Chief Deuval, Deputy Chief Sally, and Captain Malloy to continue keeping our community safe.

As we continue to move forward, let's not fall victim to an “us vs. them” mindset. This mindset is not community-focused and it's counterproductive. As a community, we must be willing to have tough conversations respectfully so that we can continue to grow in community and in fellowship together.

Mayor Frank

This press release was produced by the Maplewood Township. The views expressed are the author's own.