New Jersey reported another 3,938 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 26 additional deaths on Saturday, when the transmission rate dropped to a minimum of six months.
The transmission rate on Sunday fell to 0.87, the lowest since August 30, when it was also 0.87.
A transmission rate of 0.87 means that for every 100 people who contract the virus, they will spread it to 87 others and the outbreak is decreasing. Any number above one means that the outbreak is expanding.
Governor Phil Murphy’s latest update was posted on Twitter and comes two days after the capacity has been expanded to indoor meals, gyms, personal care services and casinos.
New Jersey’s 71 hospitals reported 2,837 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, 58 patients less than the previous day. The number of intensive care patients dropped to 571 from 737 the day before.
New Jersey has already lost 21,990 residents in the nearly 11-month outbreak – 19,802 confirmed deaths and 2,187 considered likely. The state recorded 455 confirmed deaths in the first six days of February. The death toll in January was 2,377 confirmed fatalities, the maximum in any month since May.
The total number of confirmed cases is now 645,011 in more than 9.5 million PCR tests. There were also 77,156 positive antigen tests, which the state recently started to report publicly. These cases are considered likely and health officials have warned that positive antigen tests can override confirmed PCR tests because they are sometimes administered together.
The positivity rate for tests performed on Wednesday, the last available day, was 8.7% of the 57,990 tests administered. However, test numbers for the first half of this week are likely to be skewed because of delays and closures caused by a heavy snowstorm that shed more than a foot of snow, with parts of the Garden State buried under more than 30 inches.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live Map Tracker | Newsletter | Home page
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 2,837 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey’s 71 hospitals on Saturday night.
This included 571 in critical or intensive care, with 373 in ventilators. There were also 405 COVID-19 patients were discharged on Saturday.
Hospitalizations have declined slowly in recent weeks. The state peaked at more than 8,000 hospitalizations in April.
SCHOOL CASES
New Jersey officials have reported six new outbreaks of the virus in schools, bringing the total to 137 outbreaks and 655 cases among students, teachers and school staff, according to the latest figures.
Outbreaks – defined as cases in which it was confirmed that people contracted or transmitted the virus in the classroom or during academic activities – were recorded in all 21 municipalities, according to the state’s COVID-19 panel.
These figures do not include students or staff believed to have been infected outside the school or cases that cannot be confirmed as outbreaks within the school. Although the numbers continue to rise each week, Murphy said the school outbreak statistics remain below what state officials expected when schools reopened for face-to-face classes.
New Jersey defines school outbreaks as cases in which contact trackers determined that two or more students or school staff picked up or transmitted COVID-19 in the classroom or during academic activities at school.
AGE DISSOLUTION
Classified by age, those aged 30 to 49 make up the highest percentage of New Jersey residents who contracted the virus (31%), followed by those 50-64 (23.4%), 18-29 (19.4%), 65-79 (11%), 5-17 (8.1%), 80 and older (5.2%) and 0-4 (1.7%).
On average, the virus was more deadly for older residents, especially those with pre-existing illnesses. Nearly half of the state’s COVID-19 deaths occurred among residents aged 80 and over (47.48%), followed by those 65-79 (32.6%), 50-64 (15.51%), 30-49 (4.04%), 18-29 (0.36%), 5-17 (0%) and 0- 4 (0.02%).
At least 7,797 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths occurred among residents and staff members in nursing homes and other long-term care institutions. That number has increased again at a more pronounced rate in recent months, with deaths in state nursing homes nearly tripling in December.
There are currently active outbreaks in 419 facilities, resulting in 7,055 active cases among residents and 7,166 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Sunday morning, there were more than 105 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a running count from Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.3 million people died from coronavirus-related complications.
The United States reported the majority of cases, with more than 26.91 million, and the majority of deaths, with more than 462,000.
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