What you need to know for Tuesday morning:
1: A COVID-19 test center will open today (March 24) in Hudson County at the Hudson Regional Hospital in Secaucus. Drive thru testing began last week, but as of today the center will increase the number of tests it performs per day. The center is open from 10am to 5pm by appointment only. You must call 201-388-1097 for an appointment. (There have been no briefings or follow ups about a test center in Jersey City). — JC Facebook Page
2: Six new NJ Transit employees have tested positive for COVID-19. That doubles last week’s number. The agency states it’s still a small percentage of its nearly 12,000-person workforce. —NorthJersey.com
3: New Jersey currently has 2,844 (up from 1,914) positive COVID-19 cases with 27 deaths (up from 20) total. The five counties with the most positive cases are:
- Bergen County: 609 (up from 457)
- Essex: 273 (up from 172)
- Monmouth: 238 (up from 158)
- Middlesex: 210(up from 147)
- Hudson: 190 (up from 126)
- info via New Jersey COVID-19 Dashboard (Note: Some counties are performing more tests than others, which could be contributing to the sharp increase in positive cases).
4: New Jersey’s first COVID-19 victim — 32-year old James Cai — is at home recovering after spending 19 days in the hospital. Cai has suffered lung damage and is still on oxygen. “Young people can still get it. They can die from it or give it to older people who will die from this. Everybody, please stay home so we can beat the virus,” he tells NorthJersey.com. —NorthJersey.com
5: Nearly 1 in 1,000 people in the New York metropolitan area have contracted COVID-19, which is five times the rate of the rest of the country. Per the NYT, “all of those people, in such a small space, appear to have helped the virus spread rapidly through packed subway trains, busy playgrounds and hivelike apartment buildings, forming ever-widening circles of infections.” Yet we continue to see scenes like this. —NYT
How you can help
- Fundraisers for out-of-work hospitality workers in Jersey City
- Restaurants in Jersey City offering pickup and delivery (We’re also posting restaurant news/menus daily on our IG Stories).
