While several New Jersey counties – which have the highest vaccination rate – are seeing fewer new COVID-19 cases, some counties with the lowest vaccination rates are noticing higher rates of new cases of the virus.
An analysis done by NJ Advance Media of new cases from Aug. 1 to Sept. 15 showed that counties with lower case counts tend to be within those who had higher vaccination rates.
The five counties with the highest number of vaccinated people combined have 6.3 new COVID-19 cases for every 1,000 people during the period of analysis. While the counties with the five lowest vaccination rates added 10.1 new cases per 1,000 which is a rate 60% higher, NJ.com reported.
The county with the highest vaccination rate, Morris County, has a total of 66.5% fully vaccinated citizens. During the period studied, the county only had 5.5 new cases and was the second-fewest in the state.
But for Ocean County, the state who ranked second-lowest in vaccination rate at 46.5%, has seen an additional 1.5 cases per 1, 000 people within the last month and a half.
Out of 10 counties, seven of which have the highest vaccination rates were also among the 10 the fewest new cases recorded. On the other hand, seven of the 10 counties with the lowest vaccination rate were also in the top 10 for the highest new cases.
New Jersey has a total of 58.5% vaccinated people as of September 15. This figure does not include the huge number of children who are not eligible to receive the vaccine.
In the state, there have been 7.3 new cases of COVID-19 per 1, 000 people since Aug. 1.