COVID Lockdowns Began In Essex County 3 Years Ago This Week: What's Next?

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Sometimes, the further you get from a historical event, the more details become lost. But with more than 1.1 million lives lost to COVID in the United States since March 2020, some can't forget.

There years ago this week, residents of Essex County and the Tri-State area were told to stay inside due to a contagious virus doctors didn't know how to treat. The state of New Jersey officially closed all schools as of Wednesday March 18, 2020 and instituted a voluntary 8 p.m. curfew the same week.

Residents were first told to stay indoors for two weeks, but it actually took six weeks for deaths of those already infected to plateau in New Jersey. With people staying inside, the death rate started declining after that, until they emerged in summer.

Doctors lacked a full understanding of how to treat the coronavirus — initially referred to as the "novel coronavirus" — and there was a shortage of N95 protective equipment, surgical masks, and ventilators. Many first responders, doctors, and nurses couldn't stay inside, and became sick, including one father and daughter pair of physicians who became fatally ill in April.

New Jersey's worst day was April 30, when 460 people were reported to have died of the virus in one day, or an average of one person every three minutes.

Local Schools Shut For Months

School districts were told by the state to create a plan for two weeks of remote learning, but closed through the end of the year. Even when they reopened in fall, some had to close for weeks due to outbreaks, such as in North Caldwell in October 2020.

South Orange-Maplewood's closures resulted in perhaps the most controversy, as an older ventilation system caused administrators to keep pushing the reopening date back into spring 2021.

Originally they told their school community that they would close until "at least" March 27, 2020.

Local Deaths And Long COVID

To date, more than 3,500 Essex County residents have died of the virus. The death rate for each county is often influenced by the age of the population, density of the area, and other factors.

Right now, an average of 3 people per day are dying of COVID in New Jersey.

Others in the area have suffered from long covid, including a mom in North Jersey who talked about it. Hospitals have opened specialty facilities to study and treat long covid. READ MORE: Mom Urges: Please Listen To Long-Haulers

Local cities, Essex County, pharmacies, and doctors' offices continue to run testing and vaccination centers. For a while, a race was on to register for the first vaccines, but now they're readily available and continue to evolve with new variants.

Find out more about vaccines and testing in Essex County here.