Mayor Chris Vergano announced that, as of May 17th, there are 1226 positive cases of and 135 deaths relating to the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Wayne, New Jersey.

This is an increase of 11 cases from May 16th and an increase of 106 cases and 20 deaths from just under a week prior on May 11th.

However, Vergano also pointed out that some of the cases are not necessarily from the day on which they were reported, and many are old cases recently entered into the state reporting system.

For example, he cited that 9 of the 11 new positive test results from Saturday had testing result days ranging from April 30th to May 6th.

Vergano also commented that about 80 percent of the current 135 deaths are of residents in Wayne’s twelve long term care and assisted living facilities. He also reported that 1874 people Wayne residents have tested negative for coronavirus.

To see a full statistical breakdown of COVID-19 demographics in Wayne, check out this public notice.

In New Jersey, there are currently 147,141 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 10,362 confirmed deaths, a significant increase from a week ago, where the number of confirmed cases was 140,930 and the death toll 9,312.

The state still remains second among those reporting the most cases, following distantly behind New York, which has reported 359,720 total cases and 28,324 deaths.

The Passaic County drive through COVID-19 screening 

is continuing this week on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm at William Paterson University. Those who wish to be screened are required to be a Passaic County resident, although unlike previous weeks, a doctor’s’ prescription is no longer needed.

The William Paterson screening center is also in need of volunteers. Those willing to help can email the organization at [email protected]

The Passaic County CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) is continuing to sell lawn signs to show support for frontline workers. Each lawn sign is printed with the message “thank you to all the heroes among us” and can be purchased on the organization’s website for 20 dollars.

The Wayne Food Pantry is also accep

ting monetary donations in order to buy supermarket gift cards for those in need. Any donations can be mailed to the Wayne Food Pantry, PO BOX 3341, Wayne NJ, 07470.

FLAG of Greater Wayne—the local frontline appreciation group—is continuing to support frontline workers. So far, the organization has provided 9,287 meals to frontline workers from April 9th to May 16th and have raised $98,963.02. To provide such meals, FLAG also partners up with a variety of local restaurants in order to feed frontline workers while dually support local businesses during the pandemic.

If interested in finding out more about FLAG of Greater Wayne, you can visit the organization’s Facebook page. For information regarding how to donate to FLAG, check out this public notice.

As always, you can view Mayor Vergano’s daily coronavirus up

dates on the township website, which posts new information regarding the virus on a daily basis.

To view our updates from previous weeks, click here: 3/22/20, 3/29/20, 4/5/20, 4/13/20, 4/19/20, 4/26/20, 5/3/20, and 5/11/20. Below are graphs tracking the number of cases and deaths in Wayne with each week.

Stay safe!