TOMS RIVER, NJ – For most of the summer, Ocean County saw single-digit daily positive cases for COVID-19. As summer ended and the Jewish holidays of Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Rosh Hashana passed, the county saw its first post-holiday and post-summer surge of COVID-19 in the Lakewood and the surrounding area where high populations of Orthodox Jewish residents live. As the first wave of Ocean County’s second wave began to wave in the Lakewood region, a second surge of cases has been growing since the Thanksgiving holiday and the new epicenter of the virus in Ocean County is in the county seat of Toms River.
When you throw Hannukkah into the mix, which ended Friday, numbers are once again on the rise and expected to rise even higher after Christmas and New Years Day.
On Sunday, the Ocean County Health Department reported 619 new cases of COVID-19, a record-breaking day. The previous highest day total so far was 495 on December 12th.
Toms River had 141 new cases. Brick had 81 new cases. Jackson Township saw 59 new cases of COVID-19 and Lakewood saw 68 new cases. The daily totals for Toms River, Brick and Jackson were also record setting figures since the pandemic began.