Newark Mayor: City will take 'serious measures' to combat COVID spike

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NEW JERSEY - Newark Mayor Ras Baraka tweeted Sunday night that the city is seeing a "serious spike" of COVID-19 cases and that the city would begin taking "serious measures" to combat it.

Baraka said that Newark "had more COVID-19 cases than every other city in Essex County combined!"

According to New Jersey's COVID-19 dashboard, Essex County saw an additional 155 positive COVID-19 cases as of Sunday night.

State officials have been battling a recent spike in coronavirus cases in the state, with the number of COVID-19 cases throughout New Jersey reaching nearly 2,000 for the first time since May on Friday.

The state reported an additional 1,140 new positive cases on Saturday.

In response, Governor Phil Murphy extended the state's public health emergency for an additional 30 days.

So far, over 200,000 Americans have died due to COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.