It’s been over a year since Covid- 19 peaked in March of 2020 and yet the statistics are still scary to look at. The CDC keeps pushing people to follow Covid-19 guidelines like social distancing, washing your hands, and wearing a mask in public.

In New Jersey, there are 877,814 cumulative cases and a total of 23,067 deaths. The number of cases have more than doubled since December of last year.

“3,368,129 New Jerseyans are fully vaccinated” Governor Phil Murphy states. This is 72 percent of New Jersey’s goal of getting 4.7 million people vaccinated by the end of June.  

Mayor of Wayne, Christopher P Vergano, posts updated videos almost every day on the Wayne township page.  There are now over 6,458 cases as well as 210 deaths in Wayne. Vegano pushes to keep social distancing in every one of the videos he has posted. 

“I believe we will approach a very strong degree of normality by the time we get to the end of the year,” NIAID Director Doctor Anthony Fauci states during a recent online interview. He says that if the vaccination numbers can keep rapidly going up then there will be a switch in dynamics.

“Although more people are getting vaccinated, I feel as though the restrictions are set in place to keep people safer, and easing the restrictions can be detrimental to individuals who are not eligible to get the vaccine yet” freshman, Gianna Bernier says as a reaction to Murphy planning to ease the restrictions. “I definitely don’t feel as safe as I did when certain things were mandated, but I don’t feel unsafe because I am following all of the covid safety precautions whether they are still mandatory or not” Bernier continues. 

“I think Covid has gotten better because not only are there vaccines, but there are walk-ins allowed now so anyone can get it. I think if the majority of people get vaccinated Covid rates will continue to decrease and we could slowly go back to the way things were” Alexandra Schmitt, Junior at WHHS states.