More Pediatric COVID Shots Coming Soon To Chatham

CHATHAM, NJ — More pediatric COVID vaccines are coming soon to Chatham, according to Chatham Borough's Mayor, after the first round was offered at a quickly-scheduled vaccine clinic within the past week at Chatham’s Lafayette School.

Chatham Mayor Thaddeus Kobylarz discussed the walk-in vaccination clinic for 5 to 11 year olds that was offered on Nov. 5 during Monday night’s council meeting, calling that clinic the “beginning of Chatham’s pediatric vaccination campaign." At that clinic, Kobylarz said 150 vaccines for children were available.

Subscribe to Patch for local news updates to your inbox. (It's free) https://patch.com/subscribe

“Stay tuned, there are more vaccines and vaccinations to come,” Kobylarz said, indicating the health department will be offering more clinics through the end of the year, with further details expected to be announced in the coming week.

Kobylarz spoke about the pediatric vaccinations, as well as COVID statistics during his “Mayor’s Report.”

Since the start of the pandemic, he recapped that Chatham Borough has had 660 positive cases, with 415 in 2021, 38 cases in October and 15 cases since the council last met.

He described Morris County and the rest of the state, except for Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean Counties, at a “moderate level of infection risk.”

The seven-day rolling infection average for the state as of Nov. 7, dropped to 1,058, from where it had been previously at 1,161, Kobylarz said.

Though there has been a downturn in case counts, with an 8.87 percent reduction from two weeks ago and 25 percent reduction over the past four weeks, Kobylarz said four months ago, the rolling average was about 260 cases.

“However, the good news is we continue to trend in the right direction,” he said. “The bad news is we’re not out of this latest Delta variant surge just yet.”

The state’s rate of transmission has experienced an uptick since the last council meeting, Kobylarz said, rising from 0.88 to 1.02 on Nov. 7, the number hitting 1.01 on Nov. 3, in what he called “gradual exponential growth,” fluctuating between a 1.0 and 1.02 rate of transmission.

He said that public health officials “continue to express concern over the high degree of contagiousness of the Delta variant.”

Kobylarz said Delta has been responsible for the virus resurgence since July, with health officials concerned that there could be a plateau as the weather cools down, more people stay indoors and the holidays are around the corner.

Those officials, he said, are suggesting in order to avoid first-time infection and breakthrough cases, to wear a mask in public indoor places, avoid large gatherings with “known or potentially unvaccinated people” and to limit the use of public transportation.

Click here to watch the video of the entire Borough Council meeting on Monday night.

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