MAPLEWOOD, NJ — Maplewood and South Orange remained flat in their number of cases as Essex County Office of Information released their chart for Sunday, July 12.

This follows the trend of New Jersey flattening its curve, but Health Officer Candice Davenport warned against letting up on prevention efforts during the Maplewood Board of Health meeting last week.

She also suggested when a coronavirus test would be beneficial. She said to take into account these five criteria in judging whether a test is in order. “Those who have close contact with a suspect or positive COVID case; if you are symptomatic with COVID-19 symptoms; if you are an essential worker; or recently attended a large crowd or gathering public in a public space; and [those who have] recently traveled to a state with an increase in COVID-19 cases.”

Additionally, she said, “anyone who works or lives in a long term care facility or congregate housing” would also be of “high priority” to be tested.

“If you think that you’re one of these people and you’ve been exposed,” Davenport added, “then you should get tested about three to seven days, or roughly five days, after your initial exposure. That’s when the virus has had enough time to build up and it’ll show up most accurately in the testing.”

As for prevention, it all comes down to the basics: “For public health, wearing a mask or face covering, staying six feet apart and avoiding large crowds are gathering is primary prevention. It’s the first and most important step that we can do to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including washing your hands.

“But this only works if everyone is doing it. Again, [I have] reiterated before, and I will say it again. The mask that you wear, it protects others from you and your potentially infectious respiratory droplets. When everybody else wears one, they’re protecting you. So it really works if everyone does their share.”

• The number of infected individuals in any municipality is likely to be much greater than indicated as this data ONLY includes persons who have been tested and whose lab results have been reported in the State’s data system. 
• This data will not match any other report since cases are continually entering the system and local health departments may reassign place of residence as appropriate during their investigations. 

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