New Jersey health officials reported an additional 3,694 confirmed cases of the coronavirus on Friday and 118 additional deaths as the state confirmed the first two cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant first identified in the UK
Scientists said the mutation was up to 70% more contagious. But there is no evidence that it is even more deadly or more resistant to vaccines. New Jersey joins at least 20 states where the strain has been confirmed. The first case identified is of an Ocean County man in his 60s and the other is a child who was traveling to northern New Jersey.
New Jersey hospitals registered 3,328 patients on Thursday night, the lowest rate since December 5 and a 14% drop from the recent discharge of 3,873 on December 22.
In addition, the seven-day average for new confirmed cases fell on Friday to 4,225, down 24% from the previous week and 6% from the previous month.
Governor Phil Murphy announced the latest figures during a meeting in Trenton and noted that more than 500,000 doses of vaccine have already been administered in the state.
“Our goal is to ensure that all New Jersey residents who raise their hand to be vaccinated are vaccinated,” said Murphy. “We are providing as much of the limited supply of vaccine in our control as possible to the sites with the greatest capacity, so that they can speed up and safely open appointments for people who wait patiently for their turn. We are working every day to ensure an effective and efficient allocation, monitoring inventory and yield ”.
More than 1.9 million people have registered to be vaccinated on the state’s website. Of these, 1.4 million are currently eligible. More than 4 million people in total are eligible.
The state of 9 million residents has already lost 20,875 residents in the COVID-19 pandemic – 18,754 confirmed deaths and 2,121 deaths considered likely, according to state data. The probable deaths, which are reviewed weekly, increased on Wednesday by 30 deaths. The state recorded 1,768 deaths recently confirmed in January, with nine days out of 100 or more.
New Jersey reported 584,291 confirmed cases in 9 million tests administered since the authorities announced the state’s first case on March 4. There were also 66,098 positive rapid antigen tests, which the state began reporting publicly earlier this month, although officials warned that they could override confirmed PCR tests.
The positivity rate for tests performed on Monday, the most recent day available, was 10.1% based on 52,223 tests.
The statewide transmission rate dropped slightly to 1.04, from 1.07 the previous day. Any number above 1 indicates that the outbreak is expanding, but when the rate is decreasing as in the past few days, it means that the expansion is slowing.
“All of us here remain with our fingers crossed that what we saw in our health scenario last week is the beginning of a new trend to moderate the case count and reduce the total hospitalizations,” said Murphy.
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VACCINATIONS
While Murphy said the doses of vaccine administered exceeded 500,000, the vaccination status control panel showed 490,677 on Friday afternoon. Of these, 418,711 were the first of the two doses that people will receive.
New Jersey received nearly 900,000 doses from the federal government, according to an ongoing CDC count.
The state reached a peak of 29,114 doses administered in a single day on January 14, based on the most current data.
This was the first day New Jersey expanded the vaccine’s eligibility to people 65 and older, residents with certain health conditions and smokers, creating an accumulation of consultations when the vaccines promised by the federal government did not materialize.
All six coronavirus vaccine mega-sites have been opened across New Jersey to serve as vaccination centers.
New Jersey faced criticism for slower deployment than dozens of other states as it continues to deal with a second wave of the pandemic, according to data from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The state has been distributing doses in phases. And while the authorities have greatly expanded eligibility for the vaccine last week, demand remains greater than supply, and residents are struggling to get few consultations. More than 4 million New Jersey residents are now eligible.
The authorities emphasize that the state depends on the federal government for its supply and is receiving only 100,000 doses a week, although New Jersey has a capacity of 470,000 a day.
Murphy on Saturday said the federal government did not provide the additional doses that were promised.
COUNTY BY COUNTY CASES (ranked by most new ones)
- Bergen County: 56,563 confirmed cases (364 new), 2,162 confirmed deaths (268 likely)
- Middlesex County: 55,645 confirmed cases (357 new), 1,638 confirmed deaths (217 likely)
- Monmouth County: 41,351 confirmed cases (351 new), 1,103 confirmed deaths (104 likely)
- Ocean County: 41,374 confirmed cases (351 new), 1,502 confirmed deaths (90 likely)
- Hudson County: 53,306 confirmed cases (330 new), 1,648 confirmed deaths (172 likely)
- Essex County: 56,174 confirmed cases (278 new), 2,243 confirmed deaths (260 probable)
- Morris County: 25,499 confirmed cases (229 new), 832 confirmed deaths (202 likely)
- Union County: 42,638 confirmed cases (207 new), 1,452 confirmed deaths (189 probable)
- Camden County: 34,548 confirmed cases (186 new), 901 confirmed deaths (67 probable)
- Passaic County: 45,149 confirmed cases (180 new), 1,400 confirmed deaths (160 probable)
- Atlantic County: 15,894 confirmed cases (124 new), 421 confirmed deaths (23 probable)
- Mercer County: 22,366 confirmed cases (115 new), 749 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Gloucester County: 17,911 confirmed cases (98 new), 456 confirmed deaths (22 probable)
- Somerset County: 15,379 confirmed cases (97 new), 625 confirmed deaths (93 likely)
- Burlington County: 26,366 confirmed cases (92 new), 627 confirmed deaths (51 probable)
- Cumberland County: 9,922 confirmed cases (87 new), 273 confirmed deaths (13 probable)
- Sussex County: 6,342 confirmed cases (80 new), 195 confirmed deaths (53 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 4,974 confirmed cases (52 new), 91 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Warren County: 5,069 confirmed cases (52 new), 178 confirmed deaths (15 probable)
- Salem County: 3,668 confirmed cases (27 new), 121 confirmed deaths (9 probable)
- Cape May County: 2,985 confirmed cases (17 new), 137 confirmed deaths (20 likely)
HOSPITALIZATIONS
The 3,328 hospitalized patients with confirmed (3,103) or suspected (225) cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey hospitals on Thursday night included 638 in critical or intensive care (one more than the night before), with 445 in fans (15 more).
There were 90 fewer people hospitalized on Thursday compared to the night before.
There were also 456 patients with COVID-19 who were discharged on Thursday, according to the state’s COVID-19 panel.
The governor said any hospitalization of more than 5,000 patients would likely trigger new rounds of restrictions.
SCHOOL CASES
At least 597 students and staff in 121 school districts in New Jersey caught COVID-19 through outbreaks in schools, according to the latest update from state health officials.
This is an increase of 10 districts and 40 cases from the previous weekly report. There are now confirmed outbreaks in schools in all 21 counties, although the state does not identify individual school districts.
Bergen County has the highest number of outbreaks (26) and cases (115). The county also has the highest number of confirmed cases, with 55,349 on Wednesday.
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 the cases in which contact trackers determined that two or more students or school staff caught or transmitted COVID-19 in the classroom or during academic activities at school.
AGE DISSOLUTION
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. Almost half of the deaths from COVID-19 in the state 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 7,668 of COVID-19 deaths in the state occurred among residents and staff members in nursing homes and other long-term care institutions. That number has risen again at a more pronounced rate in recent months, with deaths in asylum in the state nearly tripling in December.
There are currently active outbreaks in 431 facilities, resulting in 7,054 active cases among residents and 7,619 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Friday morning, there were more than 97.7 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a running count from Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 2.1 million people died from complications related to the coronavirus.
The USA reported the majority of cases, 24.7 million, and the majority of deaths, more than 411,000.
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Matt Arco can be contacted at [email protected].