Wayne, Passaic County’s COVID Cases: See Updates

WAYNE, NJ — New data has been released that shows the coronavirus continues to have an impact on Wayne Township, and Passaic County.

Passaic County reported 51,680 cases on Friday, but trends in Wayne Township are heading in the right direction, Mayor Christopher Vergano reported. (More on that below.)

The disease’s impact is reflected in the state Department of Health's most recent "COVID-19 Activity Level Report," which is issued weekly. The most recent report, released Thursday, says Passaic County is in the yellow zone.

If the county is in the "orange" zone, it means it has a rate of 10 to 25 cases per 100,000 people. “Yellow” means the county has a rate 1 to 10 cases per 100,000 people.

If the overall activity is at a "orange" level, state officials say, school districts in those counties would have to take more serious steps — such as quarantining or even shutting down schools — if a child shows the symptoms of COVID-19.

"When it is high risk, there are some recommendations that we make together with local school boards," said Edward Lifshitz, medical director for the state Department of Health.

Indeed, a number of school districts still provide remote instruction even as the number of new daily cases has dropped in recent weeks.

There is good news to report in Wayne Township, as cases continue to dwindle from the previous two months.

"We're trending way behind the month of January, which is good," said Vergano.

"Things are looking better."

There have been 398 new positive cases of the coronavirus reported in the first 19 days of February, Vergano said. An average of 20.42 cases per day is a sharp decrease from both January and December, when case numbers easily topped 1,000.

Correction: Passaic County is in the yellow zone in the state's latest report.