Reported Summit Coronavirus Cases Up To 4

SUMMIT, NJ — While it will soon be hard for some towns to announce every new coronavirus case that's been confirmed — and cases are expected to spike when more tests are available — the city of Summit said in a Sunday night update that there are four confirmed cases.

On Sunday, the city said in an email: "The Westfield Regional Health Department informed the City of Summit of one new, confirmed case of COVID-19 coronavirus in Summit, NJ. The patient is a 51-year-old male resident who tested positive for the virus and is recovering at home. Contact tracing has been completed by the WRHD. The cases is unrelated to other confirmed cases in Summit."

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Friday, the city noted: "On Friday, March 20, the Westfield Regional Health Department informed the City of Summit of two new, confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus in Summit, NJ. The first patient is a 21-year-old female resident who tested positive for the virus and is recovering at home. The second patient is a 31-year-old Summit resident who tested positive for the virus and is recovering at home. The cases are unrelated. Both investigations with contact tracing have been completed by the WRHD."

The first case was announced on Thursday: "The Westfield Regional Health Department informed the City of Summit of a confirmed case of COVID-19 coronavirus in Summit, NJ. The patient is a 49-year-old male resident who tested positive for the virus, and is recovering at home. All members of the family are self-quarantined."

The city had said a case announced before that was actually in the city of Madison.

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When such cases are reported, the Health Department notifies close contacts of the person and tracks where they have been.

New Jersey has reported 1,914 cases and 20 deaths as of Sunday. Many people still await testing or results.

New testing centers are opening almost daily, including a new drive-through coronavirus testing facility in Union County.

Experts say that the novel coronavirus, because it's new, is more lethal and much harder to treat than the flu.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses that include the common cold as well as much more serious diseases. The strain that emerged in China in late 2019, now called COVID-19, is related to others that have caused serious outbreaks in recent years, including severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). The first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the U.S. was on Jan. 21.

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