There’s another coronavirus cluster, this time on Long Beach Island. Seventeen lifeguards in Harvey Cedars and 18 lifeguards in Surf City tested positive for COVID-19. Officials say it happened at parties on July 12 and 14.

“Everyone really thinks this can’t happen to them, and that even their social groups, whether it’s their family or friends, that they’re somehow protected and no one in your group or your friends, you would think, can bring this to your family or your friends. But you really just don’t know, because everyone works, and goes out, and does different things in their lives and they can pick up the virus and bring it to a social event,” said Long Beach Island Health Department health officer Daniel Krupinski.

It’s the second reported cluster in just one week. In Middletown, a group of teens between the age of 15 and 19 are battling the virus after a party on July 11. It has officials pleading for young people to take social distancing more seriously.

“It’s a scary situation. In fact, in the past seven days we’ve had 65 cases of positive COVID in town and 80% have been 15 to 19 year olds,” said Middletown Township administrator Tony Mercante. “As we began to trace further, we found more and more potential positives. Of the 59 people who we know attended, nine are positive and another five are still under investigation, so that’s a significant number if you start extrapolating that out to all the people they may have come in contact with.”

Health officials say keeping track of clusters is proving difficult because parents and teens aren’t cooperating.

“Generally, in some of the conversation with the parents they’re like, well, Susie or Johnny are sleeping now, or they’ll call you back, and then we never really hear anything from them. We are concerned from the public health standpoint that we need full cooperation of parents and teenagers in regards to the contact tracing,” said David Henry, health officer for the Monmouth County Regional Health Commission. “We’re not looking to label people, or have people labeled as a spreader of disease. We just want to contain this deadly disease.”

Jonathan Oldham, the mayor of Harvey Cedars, says he hopes that young people realize that testing positive doesn’t just impact them, it also impacts their community.

“There are people of all age groups on ventilators. Just in general, we are a very small community and this event will be a reminder to everyone because our lifeguards are looked up to by the kids. And it’s a reminder that you can’t let your guard down, and you just never know. So get a mask, get something, and stay away from people and stay outside,” he said.