Deaths in Lakewood Township in 2021 have returned to pre-pandemic numbers, data from the New Jersey Health Department show.

According to the data, there were 753 total deaths in Lakewood in the calendar year 2021, up only slightly from the 740 total deaths township-wide in 2019.

In 2020, when Lakewood was hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic, there were 919 total deaths, of which 199 were attributed to the pandemic.

For the five year period prior to 2020, the average number of deaths in Lakewood was 724 per year.

Also according to the state Health Department, 85 of the deaths in 2021 were due to Covid-19.

Statewide, there were 84,125 deaths in New Jersey in 2021, down from the 95,994 deaths in 2020, but still up from the 75,076 deaths statewide in 2019.

(NOTE: According to the state data, there were a total of 313 Covid-19 related deaths in Lakewood (including 2022) which is significantly less than the number provided by the Ocean County Health Department, which says the total number for Lakewood is 380. TLS reached out to the New Jersey Health Department and the Ocean County Health Department but did not receive a response by the time this story was published. The story will be updated if or when they provide an explanation.)

Update: Nancy Kearney, the Deputy Communications Director at the New Jersey Health Department, tells TLS that the deaths reported on the state website, “are deaths of Lakewood residents, regardless of where the death occurred, with COVID as the underlying cause of death.”