With a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic continuing to hit New Jersey, the state’s top health official noted on Monday that while cases and deaths are on the rise, hospitalizations have stagnated.
The reason, said state health commissioner Judith Persichilli, may be because more than 50% of recent cases in the state are asymptomatic.
“The interesting thing is: our cases are increasing and our mortality is increasing, but our hospitalizations are not,” Persichilli told reporters on Monday morning, before a vaccination event at the Roosevelt Care Center in Old Bridge. “Hospitalizations are becoming quite stable.”
“I think it is still affecting older people,” she added. “Almost 60% of our deaths are from older people. So it may be that it is more transmissible, more asymptomatic. More than 50% are now asymptomatic transmissions. Asymptomatic transmitters may be affecting older, vulnerable adults, and they end up in hospitals, and mortality is significant. ”
Persichilli did not elaborate the data.
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New Jersey reported on Monday another 3,511 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 23 additional deaths, while the state continues to deal with post-holiday increases. The last seven-day continuous average of new cases in the state is 5,148.
There were 3,432 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in 71 state hospitals on Sunday night. That’s a six-week low and 313 patients less than the night before.
Governor Phil Murphy has repeatedly said that an important goal is to ensure that hospitals are not overcrowded with coronavirus patients. He warned last week that he would likely request more restrictions if hospitalizations exceed 5,000 patients.
Meanwhile, the statewide transmission rate was at 1.12 for the third consecutive day. A transmission rate above 1 indicates that the outbreak is expanding.
Separated by age, those aged 30 to 49 constitute the largest percentage of New Jersey residents who caught the virus (31.2%), followed by those aged 50-64 (23.7%), 18-29 (19, 3%), 65-79 (11.1%), 5-17 (7.5%), 80 and older (5.4%) and 0-4 (1.6%).
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%), followed by those aged 65-79 (33%), 50-64 (15.6%), 30-49 (4 %), 18-29 (0.4%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0%).
At least 7,644 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths occurred among residents and staff members in nursing homes and other long-term care institutions.
The numbers come as the state continues to administer coronavirus vaccines, although demand is outpacing supply.
New Jersey last week expanded the vaccine’s eligibility to those 65 and older, residents with certain health conditions and smokers. But this created a backlog of nominations, with state officials criticizing the federal government for failing to keep its promise to deliver more doses.
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Brent Johnson can be contacted at [email protected].