The number of people tested positive for the new coronavirus in Paterson increased to 2,172 on Tuesday afternoon, marking the single biggest day increases in new cases, according to municipal government data.
Municipal officials reported 225 new cases over a 24-hour period. The previous biggest single day increase was 182.
Health officer Paul Persaud attributed the big daily increase to a lag in reporting from labs.
“Over the past 5 days we have noticed that some of the cases that were inputted into the state surveillance system by the laboratory were a few weeks old. They are still cases but should have been accounted for a few weeks ago, not now at this point of the outbreak,” said Persaud.
61 people have died from the virus in Paterson. Age of the dead run from 22 to 96. 57% of the deceased were men; 43% were women, according to data.
Health officials have said there’s been an increase in household transmission in Paterson. Among the infected are mayor Andre Sayegh and his wife. The mayor has not had any symptoms from the virus, he said last week. Some people are refusing to cooperate with disease detectives by refusing to share their close contacts.
Paterson has the biggest outbreak in Passaic County, which reported 6,438 infections with 156 deaths on Tuesday. Overall, New Jersey has 68,824 cases with 2,805 deaths.
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