Proving that they might not be as immune to the virus as they think they are, towns across New Jersey are seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases among young adults.

Young adults 18-29 years old are testing positive for the virus at a higher rate than any other group, according to health officials. Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli says that 730 New Jersey residents in that age bracket have contracted the virus.

Contact tracers in Berkeley Heights says that they find that travel is the reason for the infection – either to the Jersey Shore or to out-of-state hotspots.

“Whether you’re 19 or 29 or 49, you have to mask up, social distance,” says Mayor Angie Devanney.

The mayor says that the town just experienced a spike of 10 new cases and it is mainly in young adults. She says that they are not taking caution when traveling. The town has seen 289 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic started.

“I think with the warmer weather, people are just naturally relaxing and they’re forgetting to mask up,” she says.

The spikes have also been seen in Middletown, where there were 31 cases involving teenagers, in Brick Township, in Manasquan, where saw 26 cases in one week, Cherry Hill and even in Surf City where a dozen lifeguards were all partying together.

 

This has caused another problem. There is often underage drinking at these parties that the attendees do not want to admit to, so they are refusing to tell contact tracers who they may have been around for fear that they will get in trouble.

Gov. Phil Murphy says that while he does not condone underage drinking, there are bigger issues at hand.

“Whatever activities these young people may have been engaged in is not anyone’s focus per say. Stopping a potential outbreak of coronavirus is,” he said.

The Health Department is working to boost contact tracing around the state. They have chosen Public Consulting Group to develop a contact tracing workforce to support local health departments. The company will require and manager tracers in areas with increasing COVID-19 cases.