May 11: Essex County food distribution in East Orange on May 14; local cases at 953, deaths at 52

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Confirmed cases

Infections

Bloomfield: 953 (+<1%)
Essex County: 15,602 (+1%)
New Jersey: 139,945 (+1%)

Deaths

Bloomfield: 52 (+4%)
Essex County: 1,426 (+<1%)
New Jersey: 9,310 (+1%)

As of 5/11/20 05:24 PM EST. Percentage indicates day-to-day change from 5/10 to 5/11. Sources: State of New Jersey and Essex County.

Top news

Essex County will distribute food on May 14 at 10 AM at 50 South Clinton St in East Orange
County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr.

Bloomfield Zoning Board meetings canceled until further notice due to lack of capability to hold virtual meeting with public participation and exhibits
Bloomfield Pulse

Bloomfield Board of Education adopts $119m budget for 2020-2021 school year, increasing property taxes by $21 per $100k valuation
TAPinto Bloomfield

Bloomfield parks continue to be open to passive recreation only as county, state parks open after COVID-19 closure
Township of Bloomfield

6 stories of COVID-19 recovery in Essex County
Bloomfield Patch

Council news

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the township has reassigned municipal employees to expand the health department’s contact tracing staff from 2 to 16. Contact tracing is an important element of tracking and preventing the spread of COVID-19 as lockdown restrictions ease.

Those restrictions will begin to ease at the municipal building on May 11 as the first wave of township staff return to offices retrofitted to prevent the spread of the virus. More staff will return to the building on May 18 and 26 but it will remain closed to the public until further notice.

Here’s what else we learned at the town council meeting:

The township’s Civil Rights Commission plans to host a voter information session on May 27.
The Town Council approved a 4-way stop sign at Liberty and Walnut St.
Bloomfield municipal courts are reopenning for virtual sessions on May 11.
Because of a fire that destroyed their recoreds, the Town Council waived an audit requirement for Bloomfield Center Alliance, the organization that manages the downtown business district.

You can watch the town council meeting from May 4 here.