Grandville Tower has two residents who are self-quarantined, but neither’s test results have come back yet, says a health official. (Click to enlarge.)
By JOHN T. WARD
Contrary to notices issued to tenants, a Red Bank high-rise apartment building does not have any known COVID-19 cases, officials said Wednesday.
“There are no confirmed cases (presumptive positives) in [Grandville] Tower,” Monmouth County Regional Health Commission Health Officer David Henry told redbankgreen by email. “Two individuals have been tested for COVID-19 but we have yet to receive any results.”
“The two people who have self-quarantined have done so because of one person’s contact to a confirmed case outside of Monmouth County,” Henry said.
There are “no confirmed COVID-19 positives in Red Bank currently,” Henry said.
Separately, Business Administrator Ziad Shehady told redbankgreen that as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, there were “still no presumptive or confirmed cases in Red Bank.”
The borough, he said, relies on Henry’s office for official notifications.
As reported Tuesday by redbankgreen, PRC Property Management, owner of the 91-unit Morford Place building, informed residents in a notice dated Saturday that it had been “advised that two (2) residents of Grandville Tower are determined to be presumptively positive” for the COVID-19 virus “and are self-quarantined.” (Click image above right to enlarge notice.)
PRC underscored the announcement with a follow-up notice Monday, saying that “in the last two weeks the two residents were together and they had been in contact with another individual who was subsequently confirmed to have contracted the virus.”
But Henry said he doesn’t know where PRC got its information, and his staff had not yet heard back from the company.
PRC senior vice president and general counsel Peter Wersinger told redbankgreen that the notice followed a “self-reported” case by a resident to the building’s property manager.
“We took it on face value that they had the coronavirus,” Wersinger said. “This was presumed to be accurate because it was reported by the individual as definitive.”
Out of caution, “we took every step that would could take, assuming the worst,” he said.
Wersinger said PRC “has since found out that test results are still pending.” The company is in the process of getting out a new notice to tenants clarifying the matter, he said.
State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Wednesday that the number of New Jersey COVID-19 cases climbed to 427, up 162 from Tuesday. Among them were 10 additional cases in Monmouth County, where the total is now 32.
Specifics about the new Monmouth County cases were not immediately available.
Five state residents are now known to have died from the virus, officials said.
