Do figures lie
Getting a real handle on the deadly impact of COVID-19 in New Jersey requires skepticism, patience and the ability to ferret out contradictory information.
Some counties offer up to date information on positive cases and deaths by municipality, others only provide countywide numbers. Some towns provide no information at all and refer to statewide data. Others require the skills of Sherlock Holmes to get to the data.
An example is Paterson, the third largest city in the state with a population of 145,800, just behind Jersey City with 261,746 and Newark with 280,463.
Officials in Paterson reported that as of April 3, a total of only seven residents had died from COVID-19.
A day earlier, on April 2, smaller cities recorded almost as many deaths, including Bridgewater, with five deaths; and East Orange, with three deaths. Meanwhile, Newark had 22 reported deaths and Jersey had 21 deaths as of April 2.
As of April 15, Paterson reported a total of 61 deaths; Newark’s total was 192; and 156 people have died of COVID-19 in Jersey City.
Paterson has a high number of African Americans and African Americans are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Release of true figures would likely further frighten and alarm the community where a majority of its workforce are people of color.
The Legislature approved a bill on Monday, April 13, to better examine the effects of COVID-19 on the African American community. The bill, S2357, sponsored by Sen. Nia H. Gill, D-Essex/Passaic, would require hospitals to collect and report racial demographic data on COVID-19
Paterson’s sketchy numbers point to a larger statewide problem. There is no uniform system of reporting the number of people who have tested positive or died of COVID-19. The manner of reporting is all over the map and even finding figures can be a job for Sherlock Holmes.
Officials may be reluctant to report the tragic news unfolding in their individual towns because it is not good for business. But the public has a right to have reliable data about the severity of the pandemic in their own towns.
In some towns and counties, there are timely video reports; but others have outdated videos, under the heading of “latest news.”
For example, Middlesex County offers lots of information on how to deal with the virus. But as for numbers, good luck.
For “live updates, critical resources, expert knowledge and vital information” the website links to the COVID19.NJ.GOV. The state website includes a “DATA Dashboard” but it only reflects county totals and not individual municipalities.
Piscataway Mayor Brian C. Wahler offered an April 14 update on the situation on YouTube. He talks about federal funds and ordering local food but no mention of the number of people affected in Piscataway.
Hudson County looks promising, offering a link to see “daily updates regarding local testing, cases and other data points focused on Hudson County.”
Click the link and you’ll see total positive cases and deaths but nothing about individual municipal totals.
As for Union County, there are no breakdowns. For those, go to each individual municipal website. And that may or may not provide numbers and even if they do, the question remains about the validity of the numbers.
Ocean County offers its own confusion. The website doesn’t indicate deaths and positive cases by township. Rather it has a link to “cases and latest updates” which brings you to statewide, nationwide and worldwide statistics.
But if you’re good at digging, you could go to the Ocean County Health Department site and there will be a link to totals by municipality.
Bergen County offers a list of municipalities but has its own challenges, noting that “numbers may vary due to multiple reasons such as varied reporting times from both the state and local municipalities; as well pending case verifications and/or county attribution by NJDOH.”
For individual towns, try checking the municipal websites. Again the results are scattered from no numbers to complete reports.
Vineland “where it’s always growing season” has no reference to COVID-19 on its homepage.
Some communities and counties have provided clear details in easily understood formats.
For example, Bridgewater’s home page has a daily update with the number of new confirmed cases, the total confirmed cased and total confirmed deaths from COVID-19.
Morris County, for instance, is easy to navigate. Go to the home page, click “Coronavirus Information,” then go to “updates for Morris County,” and voila, individual municipal numbers.
In Union Township, the latest update on coronavirus is from March 5and it contains nothing about the number of people afflicted in the township.
But the questions raised in other towns and counties puts a haze of doubt over all of them. Some municipalities report the number of positive cases and the number of deaths; some indicate only positive cases and no reported deaths.