Morris Co. Sees 218 Percent Jump In Fatalities Over Last Year

MORRIS COUNTY, NJ - Just-released New Jersey DOH statistics, as well as a New York Times analysis of data from the CDC, show a much-higher-than expected number of deaths in Morris County since the pandemic escalated in March.

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In fact, Morris County has seen a 218.12 percent spike in fatalities over last year.

CDC data shows that the number of people who died in New Jersey between March 8 and April 11 was 72 percent above the average for the five previous years. The current number of cases currently stands at 133,635, and 8,801 people have died.

Indeed, the Times report says that, between March 8 and April 11, there were 5,200 unexplained "excess deaths" in New Jersey, well above the 2,183 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the state during the same time period. The CDC data is preliminary and could take up to eight weeks to be finalized.

The DOH, meanwhile, released statistics this week showing 7,621 people died in March and 14,755 in April, sizable increases over the average numbers of fatalities, respectively, from 2015 through 2019 for March and April: 6,604 and 6,089.

That means New Jersey had 1,017 more deaths than the norm for March. At the same time, New Jersey had at least 267 coronavirus fatalities reported that same month. So how did 750 people die?

It may be some time before we know the answer.

Morris County Health officials told Patch that they are not at the point where they have the time or ability to analyze data regarding the causes of deaths in the county this year compared to deaths in previous years.

Currently their efforts are focused on working to help people get the treatment and other help they need to deal with this pandemic. One official told Patch that down the road there may be a statewide analysis of the numbers.

Gov. Phil Murphy's administration says the coronavirus continues to be under-tested and New Jersey needs to at least double its capacity to develop an accurate assessment of the disease's impact.

Many of the deaths were likely attributed to underlying conditions, such as heart ailments, and a number of death certificates likely indicated that something other than coronavirus was the cause, said Edward Lifshitz, medical director for the state Department of Health.

That problem was especially true at the onset of the disease's outbreak in New Jersey and before rapid-response tests were developed, officials said, and the lack of tests and long return rate of results led to a "lag" in reporting.

Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said there will be people who died who "had symptoms of COVID-19 but for whatever reasons they were not tested."

"Maybe they expired at home (or) maybe they were in the hospital and the tests had not been performed yet because of the lag," she said.

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