Full Notification

Mayor’s Message of February 26, 2021

This is West Caldwell Mayor Joe Tempesta with a public service announcement.

Essex County is doing an outstanding job of vaccinating our residents. I know it’s difficult to get an appointment, but persistence will pay off. As of today, over 2000 of our residents have been vaccinated and approximately 1000 have had the 2nd vaccination shot. Although this represents only 20% of our population that is a great accomplishment with limited vaccine. We expect vaccine availability to double over the next 6-8 weeks so hopefully by the middle of April we can project over 50% of our residents will have been vaccinated. A big thanks again to the County of Essex under the leadership of County Executive Joe DiVincenzo.

Please be advised the West Caldwell Health Department has informed us as of today Friday, February 26, 2021 we currently have eleven (11) new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in West Caldwell’s general population since last week.

Of the 11 new confirmed cases, 3 individuals are home quarantined and recovering and 8 have already recovered. Since the beginning of the Pandemic, we have had a total of 542 cases, of which, we have had 14 citizens pass away in our general population. Thankfully, we have had 525 cases closed whereby those citizens are recovered and are no longer quarantined.

In our two skilled nursing facilities combined we have no current COVID-19 cases in Crane’s Mill and Hackensack Meridian Health WC Care Center.

We encourage all of you to continue the practice of social distancing, wash your hands often, and wear masks whenever possible. House parties tend to be an incubator for the Covid-19 virus, and we are simply trying to remind all of you to be careful and try and limit house gatherings to under 10 people.

I also ask that you continue to join me in thanking all our first responders and teachers. I also thank you for continuing to patronize our restaurants and retail stores.

Eligible individuals may register for the COVID vaccine through Essex County by visiting essexcovid.org or calling 973-877-8456.