Coronavirus (Image: CDC)
Brick Township on Thursday broke through a disturbing barrier in the coronavirus pandemic: more than 500 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection.
Brick has the third-highest number of cases in Ocean County, keeping up with a trend in the statistics since infections began to be tracked by the Ocean County Health Department last month. Overall, the county has confirmed 4,272 COVID-19 cases.
Data released Thursday afternoon shows Brick has 534 cases. The township trails Lakewood, with 1,214 cases and Toms River, with 739 cases. The municipality with the next-highest number of infections is Jackson, with 362 cases.
Data from the state Department of Health shows that out of the 4,272 cases, there have been 185 deaths within the county. Ocean County has the eighth-highest number of both infections and deaths from COVID-19 in New Jersey.
State data also showed that, as of Thursday, 56 percent of the state’s ventilators – 1,645 – were in use.