Westfield Teens Have Coronavirus 'Associated With A Party:' Mayor

WESTFIELD, NJ — After a recent period in which the town of Westfield went two weeks without a new coronavirus case — a situation reflected in many New Jersey towns before the recent reopenings and travel — Mayor Shelley Brindle confirmed in an update Friday night that seven people in town had been reported positive on Friday, five of whom were in the 17-19 age range and three of those "associated with a party." Judging from what she's heard, Brindle said, there will be more confirmed cases in the next few days.

[UPDATE: On Saturday afternoon, Mayor Brindle said 11 more cases had been reported since Friday, the fifth highest one-day total in Westfield since the pandemic began. Nine were in their twenties. Read more HERE.]

Brindle asked residents to postpone any graduation parties on the coming weekend, and discussed what she called a sudden "concerning uptick" this week. (Westfield High School held an outdoor graduation Thursday; see This Is What A Masked Graduation Looks Like: Westfield.)

"Of the seven cases reported today, five are in the age range of 17-19 (three of which are associated with a party and two are still being investigated), one is in the age range of 20-25 (from exposure to a household contact), and one is in the age range of 30-35 (exposure still being investigated)," Brindle wrote in an email around 7 p.m. Friday. "Four of the seven cases from the previous week are attributed to travel to states under the quarantine order."

Brindle said Westfield had reported 10 additional cases since Tuesday — two on Wednesday, one on Thursday, and seven Friday — which brought the total infected Westfield residents since the beginning of the pandemic to 299.

In addition, in Westfield internet discussion groups on Friday, someone posted a text alert from a local "UCC" (Urgent Care Center) that appeared to have been intended for its medical staff. The alert read: "Cluster of Positive Viral Tests Identified at Westfield UCC: 16 of 118 symptomatic patients seen at our Westfield UCC in the past 2 days have tested POSITIVE for COVID-19. Of these patients 9 are young adults in their 20s who live in Westfield and likely contracted COVID from recent parties. Both the local and state health departments have been notified and are actively investigating."

It added, "This could be an early indicator of increasing community spread. Your office may receive inquiries regarding exposures or symptoms. Symptomatic patients can be referred to SMG UCCs. Asymptomatic patients should be directed to CityMD UCCs for testing. Please continue to strictly follow all our infection control practices and use of PPE."

It's unclear whether that party referenced or the "nine young adults in their 20s" even figured into Brindle's numbers, as in her update Friday night, she said:

"I have seen the alert circulating today about the Westfield Urgent Care Center’s confirmed cases, in addition to numerous other messages sent to me about known new cases within the community, mostly among 18-24 year-olds emanating from Fourth of July and graduation parties. There is typically a 48-hour lag time between a patient’s positive test results and those cases being reported to us in the statewide system, so I fully expect these numbers to rise over the next few days.

"This is an incredibly frustrating development after the many months of dedication by our residents to minimize community spread. Perhaps two weeks of no cases provided a false sense of security."

She added, "While young adults may not typically experience the severity of the virus, they can easily spread it to more vulnerable members of the community and we could go right back to square one."

'Reconsider...graduation parties this weekend'

She urged residents to postpone or cancel graduation parties.

"I would urge everyone to strongly reconsider any plans they have to host or attend graduation parties this weekend with anyone other than family members," Brindle wrote.

"I also want to remind everyone to fully cooperate with contact tracers if they call you. Our Department of Health has worked tirelessly to track the cases in Westfield that provide us with helpful data about trends and community spread...

"While it’s not unexpected to see an increase in cases following the lifting of many restrictions, I am extremely concerned about the community spread aspect coupled with an upcoming weekend of many graduation celebrations in the works. We are all anxious to have our businesses reopen, our sports resume, and our kids back to school."

New Jersey cities reporting increases, after declines

Many cities in New Jersey went for a week or two in mid-June with minimal new cases, but are seeing an uptick in cases as facilities reopen and people travel back from states that reopened sooner than New Jersey.

Two weeks ago, in her opening remarks for the Westfield Town Council meeting on June 30, Brindle had said the town has not gotten word of a new coronavirus case in town since June 17. The total number of cases remained at 282.

More recently, this past Tuesday, Brindle said in an update, "Currently, the County has 16,450 cases, with Westfield reporting four additional cases since Thursday (two on Saturday, one on Sunday, one on Monday, and none today), bringing our total to 289."

The town has lost 42 residents to the virus, the last one noted on June 3, and 82-year-old woman.

States with spikes

The state of New Jersey has now asked residents to self-quarantine and get tested after coming back from 19 states. Three new states were added Tuesday after the original sixteen.

States around the country that reopened facilities earlier than New Jersey have had to pull back on their reopenings, including Texas, which closed bars and which is seeing a record number of hospitalizations and deaths (click for daily numbers from a Houston-based hospital system).

Some North Jersey cities have said that their contract tracing showed that an uptick was due to out-of-state travel rather than recent protests over racial injustice (read more on that topic here).

State of New Jersey numbers and reopenings

A week ago, before the July 4 holiday weekend, on Wednesday, July 1, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said there had been 423 new cases of the virus statewide in the previous 24 hours, and 45 more confirmed deaths. That meant that the number of cases had risen to 171,928, and 13,244 deaths.

A week later, this Wednesday, July 8, Murphy reported 335 new cases since the day before and 53 more reported deaths, bringing the death toll to 13, 476.

But this rate is down from New Jersey's peak: a high of 460 deaths in 24 hours on April 30, or one person every three minutes.

Murphy said on Wednesday that some of the deaths may have been much older than that day, but had been confirmed within the last day. Thus, one has to look at longer term trends, like week to week rather than daily. "The point of our work isn't that we want our hospitals to be ready for more patients. The point of our work is to keep people out of the hospital entirely," he said. "So folks, again, personal responsibility, please, do your part. Today we're reporting another, sadly with the heaviest of hearts, 53 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and that is now a total of 13,476 confirmed losses of life ... this does not mean that 53 people died since noon yesterday from COVID-19 ... these are the folks that we can confirm have died in this pandemic, the newly confirmed folks we've lost since we last gathered. Some of these go back quite a bit."

Also on Wednesday, Gov. Phil Murphy ordered residents to wear masks outdoors in areas where they must be near other people. He also said he will expand outdoor dining.

Where to get tested

Mayor Brindle had said on June 30, "I would be remiss if I did not remind everyone about the rising levels of covid-19 in a number of states with far less restrictions than we experienced here in New Jersey. With summer upon us and many folks traveling, please be considerate of the community and adhere to the quarantine guidelines set forth by the state. I’m also receiving a number of messages from concerned residents about the lack of social distancing and face coverings downtown, and I want to reiterate that this virus is not behind us."

She encouraged those who may have been exposed to get tested. Visit covid19.nj.gov/testing for more information. Or see this link to information about Union County testing.

For the recent Westfield Patch coronavirus updates regarding school reopening, statistics, testing information, and other reopening updates, click this link.

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