As the pandemic worsens in almost every corner of the country with over 100,000 people per day contracting the virus, there’s an interesting tool I came across on Facebook. You simply put in your zip code, anywhere in New Jersey or anywhere in the United States, and it gives you the current number of cases in your area. It also gives you the current COVID death toll and the percentage of your area’s population that has been infected.

For example my county of Hunterdon has had 2,186 confirmed cases and 130 deaths. That’s 5.94% of the people who caught it died from it. It also gives you COVID cases as a percentage of the entire population which stands at 1.7481% of all of Hunterdon County.

There’s also a ton of information and links to resources. The tool was published on cnn.com but data comes from Johns Hopkins University.

It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole once you start playing with this. I put in my mom’s zip code to see how Union County compared to mine. Much worse. 4.6582% of their total population has been infected. With 1,417 deaths.

Then I started looking up small town America places I’ve lived while working my way up in radio. Bradford County, PA has 2.6524% of their total population infected. Even small Page County, Va. has 2.3201% of their population infected and over 5% who got it there have died from it.

This pandemic has spared virtually no part of the country. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. But better it will get. Hang in there.

 

READ MORE: LOVED & LOST — NJ’s lives lost to COVID-19

More From Lite 96.9 WFPG