While state officials held a press conference Saturday afternoon to announce that the total coronavirus cases in New Jersey had jumped to 69, the numbers were already out of date.
Moments later, the Bergen County executive released numbers for the state’s most populous county that showed there were six more cases than the state reported.
State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said her department updates its online tally of COVID-19 cases once a day. Sometimes local health departments get numbers more quickly, especially as more commercial labs expand testing capabilities for New Jerseyans.
“The laboratories are supposed to be calling or faxing the local health department of the jurisdiction of where the individual resides immediately,” Dr. Christina Tan, the state’s epidemiologist, said. “So that’s why sometimes these local health departments, who are the lead in these investigations, will sometimes be getting the results before the department of health.”
The state announced its first coronavirus case on March 4, and the patient’s gender, age and hometown were released to the public a day later. The state released the hometowns of the first four cases last week, too.
As the number of cases in New Jersey climbs, state officials are only providing information about cases on a county basis — not town-by-town. The state’s online coronavirus tracker also reduces its numbers and then increases them at certain points in the day.
It makes tallying the number of cases increasingly difficult. And as municipalities release information about cases within their own borders, it becomes unclear if those are additional cases not yet reported by the state.
State officials did not confirm Saturday if cases that were reported by an individual municipality were included in their own data. Still, Gov. Phil Murphy said the state is not having any gaps in reporting positive cases.
"The number we give you is not garbled,” Murphy said Saturday. “At that moment in time, that is the number. Recognizing that over the course of 24 hours that number moves around. ... We are giving you the very best numbers we can give you.”
Stephanie Silvera, an epidemiologist and Montclair State University professor, said knowing the towns of cases may be “nice to know,” but most New Jersey residents travel outside their hometowns anyway. It may be possible the state is tracking the individual municipalities of each case, she said, but not releasing the information for privacy reasons.
“If you’re talking about a small municipality and you say three people (have coronavirus), by the end of the Facebook day people are already figuring out who it is,” Silvera told NJ Advance Media.
Silvera said the opening of new testing centers indicates that New Jersey is well past containment or even contact tracing. She said it shows the state is moving towards screening, which is more cost-effective than contact tracing.
Bergen County plans to open a new testing facility on Monday. A drive-thru testing area opened to certain patients in Hudson County, an area with fewer cases than Bergen County.
Still, Silvera urged that cooperation between all local, county, state and federal officials is paramount during a public health crisis. Consistent messaging would help to alleviate fears, she added.
“Good public health communication is the key and very often, unfortunately, it’s where we have the most breakdown,” she said. “There needs to be communication from the local, the county, the state, the federal level and back.”
If you would like updates on New Jersey-specific coronavirus news, subscribe to our Coronavirus in N.J. newsletter.
Rebecca Panico may be reached at rpanico@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @BeccaPanico.
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