New Jersey on Thursday reported 2,746 more confirmed cases of coronavirus and 89 additional deaths, as winter weather in New Jersey and across the country caused delays in sending vaccines and forced appointments to be rescheduled.
Governor Phil Murphy announced the update on the social networks a day after postponing the state’s public health emergency for 30 days for the 12th time – a move he said will help the state continue to implement vaccinations, as the second wave of the pandemic continues to show signs of decline.
The Garden State’s seven-day average for new confirmed positive cases is now 2,766, down 18% from the previous week and 46% from the previous month.
The number of coronavirus patients in New Jersey hospitals fell for the 15th consecutive day, dropping to 2,327 on Wednesday night. This represents a 40% drop from the recent peak of 3,872 on December 22 and the lowest number of patients since November 15.
The last transmission rate across the state is 0.91, the same as the previous day. When the rate is below 1, it indicates that the state’s outbreak is decreasing. But the rate has recently risen for six consecutive days, after weeks of steady decline.
New Jersey has already reported 675,713 confirmed cases of coronavirus in more than 10 million CRP tests in more than 11 months since the state reported its first case on March 4, 2020. There have also been 82,738 positive antigen tests. These cases are considered likely, and health officials have warned that positive antigen tests may overlap with confirmed PCR tests, because they are sometimes administered together.
The state’s 9 million people also reported that 22,721 residents died from complications related to COVID-19 – including 20,432 confirmed deaths and 2,289 considered likely. The state reported 1,091 confirmed deaths from coronavirus in February.
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There were 1,524,402 doses of vaccine administered in New Jersey as of Thursday, according to the state panel. Of these, 1,086,763 were the first of the two doses that people will receive, while 436,988 were the second.
That is more than 1.79 million doses the state has received from the federal government, according to a count by the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state’s goal is to vaccinate at least 70% of the adult population by the end of May. That is about 4.7 million people.
Murphy warned on Thursday that the winter storm that hit the state – and other parts of the country – could cause problems in the supply and distribution of vaccines in the coming days.
“Our early deliveries will not arrive as scheduled,” he said during a morning press conference. “This may result in the need to reschedule many commitments.”
The storm closed New Jersey vaccine mega-sites in Burlington, Middlesex and Morris counties, while Bergen’s mega-site closed at 10 am and the Gloucester County mega-site decided to close at 2 pm, Murphy said. The Atlantic County website remains open.
Meanwhile, Murphy said on Wednesday that the state would likely plan to lift further restrictions on the coronavirus if it weren’t for the uncertainty surrounding more contagious variants.
“If we continue to see hospitalizations especially continue to fall, there is no doubt that we will take further steps to open,” said Murphy. “But I think we will be more cautious than we would have been without the variants.”
Only one variant of COVID-19 was discovered in New Jersey – the one that emerged in the UK, said state health commissioner Judith Persichilli on Wednesday. So far, the state has registered 50 cases of the variant, Persichilli said. Health officials say the vaccines appear to be effective against the UK variant, but the strain is more contagious than the typical coronavirus strain.
COUNTY BY COUNTY CASES (ranked by most new ones)
- Bergen County: 65,828 confirmed cases (336 new), 2,292 confirmed deaths (280 probable)
- Ocean County: 49,803 confirmed cases (310 new ones), 1,683 confirmed deaths (115 probable)
- Hudson County: 61,124 confirmed cases (300 new), 1,784 confirmed deaths (177 likely)
- Essex County: 64,993 confirmed cases (288 new), 2,364 confirmed deaths (266 likely)
- Middlesex County: 65,244 confirmed cases (267 new), 1,827 confirmed deaths (224 likely)
- Monmouth County: 49,201 confirmed cases (205 new), 1,247 confirmed deaths (118 likely)
- Union County: 47,400 confirmed cases (165 new), 1,534 confirmed deaths (196 likely)
- Passaic County: 50,654 confirmed cases (135 new), 1,486 confirmed deaths (169 probable)
- Morris County: 30,643 confirmed cases (129 new), 878 confirmed deaths (225 likely)
- Camden County: 38,385 confirmed cases (97 new), 1,029 confirmed deaths (79 probable)
- Atlantic County: 18,986 confirmed cases (95 new), 520 confirmed deaths (26 likely)
- Burlington County: 29,928 confirmed cases (83 new), 672 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Somerset County: 17,880 confirmed cases (77 new), 674 confirmed deaths (102 probable)
- Mercer County: 25,383 confirmed cases (71 new), 820 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Gloucester County: 20,444 confirmed cases (53 new), 500 confirmed deaths (26 likely)
- Hunterdon County: 5,983 confirmed cases (30 new), 101 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Sussex County: 7,613 confirmed cases (26 new), 206 confirmed deaths (62 probable)
- Cumberland County: 11,694 confirmed cases (21 new), 325 confirmed deaths (21 likely)
- Warren County: 6,030 confirmed cases (20 new), 192 confirmed deaths (19 probable)
- Salem County: 4,118 confirmed cases (15 new), 148 confirmed deaths (11 probable)
- Cape May County: 3,526 confirmed cases (12 new), 150 confirmed deaths (26 likely)
COUNTY VACCINES BY COUNTY
- ATLANTIC COUNTY – 47,683 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY – 171,616 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 79,151 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 88,247 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY – 21,945 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 21,276 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTY – 125,328 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 54,019 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY – 69,028 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 20,013 doses administered
- MERCER COUNTY – 42,396 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 117,555 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 114,699 doses administered
- MORRIS COUNTY – 111,417 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY – 91,011 doses administered
- PASSAICO COUNTY – 69,558 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY – 9,380 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTY – 58,453 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTY – 23,590 doses administered
- UNION COUNTY – 74,800 doses administered
- WARREN COUNTY – 14,380 doses
- UNKNOWN COUNTY – 50,572 doses administered
- OUT OF STATE – 48,285 doses administered
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 2,327 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey’s 71 hospitals on Wednesday night – 43 less than the night before.
This included 474 in critical or intensive care (58 more than the previous night), with 306 on ventilators (three less).
There were also 308 patients with COVID-19 who were discharged on Wednesday, according to the state panel.
SCHOOL CASES
New Jersey reported 144 outbreaks of coronavirus in schools, which resulted in 686 cases among students, teachers and school staff this school year, according to the state panel.
Outbreaks – defined as cases in which infection or transmission of the virus was confirmed in the classroom or during academic activities – were recorded in all 21 municipalities, according to the state 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.
There are about 1.4 million students and teachers across the state, although teaching methods in the midst of the outbreak have varied, some are on-site, some are hybrid and others are completely remote.
AGE DISSOLUTION
Separated by age, those aged 30 to 49 constitute the highest percentage of New Jersey residents who caught the virus (31%), followed by those 50-64 (23.4%), 18-29 (19.4%) , 65 -79 (11%), 5-17 (8.2%), 80 and older (5.1%) and 0-4 (1.7%).
On average, the virus was more deadly for older residents, especially those with pre-existing illnesses. Almost half of deaths by COVID-19 in the state occurred among residents aged 80 and over (47.36%), followed by those aged 65-79 (32.7%), 50-64 (15.55%), 30 -49 (4.02%), 18-29 (0.36%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0.02%).
At least 7,867 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths occurred among residents and staff members in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
There are currently active outbreaks in 381 facilities, resulting in 6,887 active cases among residents and 7,011 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
Early Thursday afternoon, there were 109.6 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a count running by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.4 million people died of coronavirus-related complications.
The United States reported the majority of cases, with more than 27.7 million, and the majority of deaths, with more than 488,300.
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Brent Johnson can be contacted at [email protected].