'Breakthrough,' COVID In Children, Among Chatham's September Case Count

CHATHAM, NJ — During the month of September, there were 28 Chatham Borough residents who tested COVID-positive, according to Chatham Borough officials.

Of those residents, 13 were fully-vaccinated. In a news release from the borough on Monday, none of these breakthrough cases - those who test positive for COVID after a full course of vaccines - reportedly resulted in no hospitalizations, with most experiencing “mild to moderate” COVID symptoms.

Chatham Borough’s Administrator Stephen Williams, as a spokesperson for the borough, said that five of September’s cases “were in children under 18.”

From the period of Sept. 24 to 30, there were eight residents who had positive COVID tests, according to figures from Chatham Borough’s Health Officer. The age range of those who tested positive were from two to 60 years of age, with three residents under the age of 11 who tested positive, one between the ages of 12 to 20 and five over the age of 21.

Earlier in the month, the borough announced there was one fatality attributed to the virus in September.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Chatham Borough’s stats include:

• 622 COVID-positive cases
• 36 as the mean age overall of those who tested positive
• 377 who tested positive in 2021
• 14 who have been hospitalized since the pandemic start
• 11 fatalities from Chatham Borough since March 2020

In early September, Chatham Borough Mayor Thaddeus Kobylarz said during a council meeting that 97 percent of borough residents older than 18, have received their full course of COVID vaccines.

He additionally talked breakthrough cases, quoting a public health official who said people need to “disabuse themselves that vaccines are bulletproof, they are not.” That official also said expecting no risk of catching COVID again, post-vaccination is “unrealistic.”

Kobylarz passed on recommendations to residents to challenge breakthrough infections, handed down from these officials, who he heard recommend that residents of all vaccination statuses should mask up in public, avoid large gatherings and limit travel, until the rate of transmission lowers from the Delta variant infections.

Questions or comments about this story? Have a news tip? Contact me at:jennifer.miller@patch.com.