Passaic County health officer Araceli Patel presents 2025 public-health report, flags funding shifts
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Summary
Health Officer Araceli Patel told the Passaic County Board of Commissioners on April 14 that the department completed thousands of inspections and screenings in 2025, distributed 21,960 COVID-19 test kits and managed outbreaks as some federal grants were reduced; the county will open a Highlands Regional Service Center in West Milford.
Araceli Patel, Passaic County's health officer, presented the county's 2025 annual public-health report to the Board of Commissioners on April 14, detailing division activities, inspection totals and program delivery and describing steps the department is taking after reductions in some federal grant funding.
Patel said mosquito-control teams conducted 14,319 inspections in 2025 and tested 257 mosquito pools across the county; 21 of those pools tested positive, triggering localized response actions. The environmental-health program completed 725 site visits in 2025 in coordination with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and used 24/7 duty officers to respond to spills, hazardous-material reports and other incidents.
The health officer described consumer- and environmental-health work: the Office of Consumer Protection performed 635 food-establishment inspections and 70 reinspections, handled 191 temporary-event inspections and 38 recreational-bathing inspections. Septic-related work included 381 inspections, 166 plan reviews and 121 permits; nuisance complaints totaled 127. Patel said the county responded to food-temperature violations and other routine enforcement issues to reduce risk of foodborne illness.
Patel recounted public-health screening and outbreak work: the nursing and epidemiology teams completed 160 lead-poisoning screenings, 997 blood-pressure checks, 301 glucose screenings, 219 cholesterol tests and 138 vision screenings in 2025. The county managed 21 outbreaks during the year and recorded 18,820 individual cases of communicable disease countywide; county staff responded to 2,419 of those cases in municipalities where the county provides shared services.
"We have a total of 38 staff," Patel said when asked about departmental capacity. The board's administrator added that shared-services contracts can deliver savings and greater services to small municipalities; he said the county's contract with Bloomingdale produced an estimated savings in the range of $100,000 over a 10-year agreement while providing more services than many small local health departments could supply independently.
On COVID-19 testing, Patel said the health department distributed 21,960 test kits in 2025, down from roughly 61,000 the prior year, and attributed the decline to smaller allocations from the state rather than local lack of need. "For 2025, we distributed a total of 21,960," she said.
Patel also outlined volunteer and preparedness work: medical-reserve-corps volunteers contributed about 371 volunteer hours in 2025, an economic value she estimated at $13,318, and emergency-preparedness staff continue to update plans and provide training. The county's environmental-education staff delivered 245 programs that reached 5,458 students across six municipalities with shared-service agreements.
On enforcement and consumer protection, the weights-and-measures division conducted 11,867 device inspections in 2025, ran 136 price-verification inspections that resulted in 604 violations, and performed 121 commodity audits that identified 4,069 packages in violation of labeling or measurement standards.
Patel announced a new Highlands Regional Service Center at 11 Edgar Drive in West Milford that will colocate health services, senior services and human services to improve northern-county access. "We're gonna be located at 11 Edgar Drive in West Milford," she said, adding that the center will house multiple county services.
Board members asked for follow-up details, including a town-by-town breakdown of environmental-health site visits (Patel agreed to provide a non-address-specific list by email) and whether ongoing federal funding reductions threaten programs. A commissioner said the county had lost "at least one" federal public-health grant in the current federal administration; Patel and the administrator said some grants were reduced or ended in 2025 and some end in 2026, but that the county has contingencies in place to continue core services.
The presentation concluded with the board thanking staff for work on the county's Homeless Connect Day, and with routine questions about operational details and program schedules. Patel confirmed two community health "extravaganza" events are planned for May 2 and June 6, 2026.
Next steps: Patel said she will provide the requested town-by-town breakdown of the 725 environmental-health site visits and continue monitoring grant funding and state allocations for supplies such as COVID-19 test kits.
