Essex County Bumped Up To ‘High’ COVID Level: See Local Stats

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — Cases of coronavirus, including the delta variant, are on the rise in New Jersey. And Essex County is among the areas still seeing a spike of COVID-19, officials say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released an online map that rates counties across the nation according to their levels of COVID-19 transmission. The CDC uses four categories of threat level: low, moderate, substantial and high.

After several weeks at the “substantial” threshold, CDC officials have bumped Essex County up to the “high” level for the period covering Aug. 5 to Aug. 11 (article continues below).

Some health officials have pointed to the more contagious delta variant as a major factor behind the recent spread.

In its weekly COVID-19 Variant Surveillance Report that ended July 24, the New Jersey Department of Health noted that a whopping 90.4 percent of all variant cases were the delta variety – up from 9.7 percent in December 2020.

Essex County officials have been releasing cumulative COVID-19 totals for each town and city, noting that their daily report may not match state or municipal totals (here's why).

See the previous month of case and death totals below.

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