Newark Mayor Ras Baraka in his daily briefing this evening shared the total numbers of COVID-19 positive cases and mortalities in his city. Here they are: 4,328 positive cases and 298 COVID-19 deaths, since the recorded beginning of the scourge.

“There are almost 300 people in the city – family – grieving because family lost their lives,” said Baraka. “We should be in an uproar.

“Death to the coronavirus,” he added. “long live us.”

Essex County to date has sustained 11,129 positive cases and suffered 849 deaths.

“There are a lot of people who recovered, in fact, the numbers of people who are recovering are growing,” said the mayor. “Don’t get fooled. We all in this together. Don’t be fooled by people on Facebook trying to divide us. There is a deliberate effort by people to try to do the devil’s work and divide us We have to push the facts. We have to push righteous information.

“We pray a hedge of protection [between our young people and the virus],” the mayor said.

People are not sufficiently socially distancing, say sources, who point to continued Brick City congregating. “Folks not listening,” one of the sources told InsiderNJ. “Going to get worse once the weather changes.”

Speaking in English and broken Spanish, Baraka acknowledged as much in his high-density municipality address, as he repeatedly urged residents to stay inside, to not venture outdoors except in the case of an emergency.