TOMS RIVER-On Tuesday, Toms River Mayor Maurice B. Hill defended himself against a claim that there is a higher concentration of COVID-19 infections in the northern section of Toms River, claiming the map that he gets every day refutes that claim.
According to Ocean County Health Department Coordinator Daniel Regeneye, no such map exists as far as he knows.
“The Ocean County Health Department is not in possession of, nor has seen or created any map detailing locations of any COVID-19 positive residents in Toms River or any municipality in Ocean County,” Regeneye said.
“When Will our Public Officials finally make public statements about certain areas of town not following the rules of gatherings there is a reason our numbers along brick and Jackson are increasing,” asked resident Sal DiFilippo. “The numbers show toms river but not the sections of toms river, if it can be proven wrong show it. Our mayor should have spoken out as soon as the first occurrences were taken place.”
Hill then made a revelation that had not been previously shared by any law enforcement agency or health agency at any level of government in the state of New Jersey. A detailed geographic map of COVID-19 infections exists beyond the general daily count provided by the Ocean County Health Department. Hill said the stories on Facebook regarding higher than normal outbreak figures in the northern section of town that has a higher concentration of Orthodox Jewish residents are nothing but a myth and that his map does not back up those rumors.
“I can tell you that looking at the map that I get daily, the cases are spread throughout town, they’re not concentrated in one area, there’s no one central epicenter of town,” Hill said. “They’re spread pretty evenly through the town.”
That map does not exist, according to the health department.
http://www.shorenewsnetwork.com/2020/04/03/hill-says-coronavirus-map-shows-no-outbreak-concentrations-in-toms-river/
