New Jersey on Tuesday reported another 3,429 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 27 additional confirmed deaths, as the number of people hospitalized across the state exceeded 2,000 patients for the first time in almost a month.
Governor Phil Murphy said on Monday, when he declared that New Jersey is “back to leading the country in spreading the virus”, that the recent increase likely means that there will be no further announcements in the near future about loosening restrictions.
The Garden State’s seven-day average for new confirmed cases is now 3,391, 11% more than a week ago and 29% over the previous month. That is the highest seven-day average since February 4.
There were 2,066 coronavirus patients in New Jersey hospitals on Monday night – the first time that more than 2,000 patients have been reported since February 25, according to state data. Hospitalizations have declined since mid-January, when more than 3,700 patients were being treated, but hovered close to 2,000 for two weeks.
New Jersey health facilities and vaccine centers have administered approximately 3.56 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine – including more than 1.26 million people considered fully vaccinated, according to state data. About 500,000 doses of the vaccine were administered last week, Murphy said.
The state’s goal is to vaccinate 70% of eligible adults – about 4.7 million people – by the end of May. Over 18% of the adult population is fully vaccinated and more than half of adults have received at least one injection.
New Jersey’s transmission rate remained the same Tuesday at 1.09. Any number above 1 indicates that the outbreak is growing, with each new case leading to at least one other case.
In all, New Jersey has already registered 770,980 confirmed cases of coronavirus in more than 11.6 million CRP tests in the year since the state reported its first case on March 4, 2020. There were also 102,860 positive antigen tests. 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 state of 9 million people reported that 24,242 residents died of complications related to COVID-19 – 21,727 confirmed deaths and 2,515 deaths considered probable.
On Friday, New Jersey increased the limits for indoor and outdoor meetings from 25 to 50 people and increased capacity limits for restaurants, gyms and health clubs, recreational facilities and department stores and personal care companies to 50%. But masking mandates and guidelines for social detachment will remain in effect.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live Map Tracker | Newsletter | Home page
VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY
- ATLANTIC COUNTY – 117,348 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY – 409,031 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 192,226 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 218,301 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY – 51,668 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 50,421 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTY – 273,512 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 135,396 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY – 178,681 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 49,542 doses administered
- MERCER COUNTY – 129,485 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 293,235 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 271,160 doses administered
- MORRIS COUNTY – 265,573 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY – 221,183 doses administered
- PASSAICO COUNTY – 158,649 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY – 24,234 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTY – 145,294 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTY – 55,622 doses administered
- UNION COUNTY – 187,595 doses administered
- WARREN COUNTY – 36,086 doses administered
- UNKNOWN COUNTY – 4,130 doses administered
- OUT OF STATE – 92,130 doses administered
COUNTY BY COUNTY NUMBERS (ranked by most new cases)
- Bergen County: 76,870 confirmed cases (362 new), 2,412 confirmed deaths (288 probable)
- Hudson County: 69,777 confirmed cases (344 new), 1,889 confirmed deaths (197 likely)
- Middlesex County: 74,235 confirmed cases (332 new), 1,942 confirmed deaths (242 likely)
- Monmouth County: 58,347 confirmed cases (321 new), 1,344 confirmed deaths (133 probable)
- Essex County: 73,978 confirmed cases (311 new), 2,478 confirmed deaths (282 likely)
- Ocean County: 57,461 confirmed cases (243 new), 1,821 confirmed deaths (144 probable)
- Morris County: 36,489 confirmed cases (187 new), 928 confirmed deaths (238 likely)
- Union County: 53,085 confirmed cases (178 new), 1,626 confirmed deaths (213 likely)
- Passaic County: 56,318 confirmed cases (174 new), 1,579 confirmed deaths (189 probable)
- Burlington County: 33,311 confirmed cases (140 new), 718 confirmed deaths (62 probable)
- Camden County: 42,066 confirmed cases (129 new), 1,117 confirmed deaths (97 probable)
- Mercer County: 28,085 confirmed cases (116 new), 861 confirmed deaths (43 probable)
- Gloucester County: 22,675 confirmed cases (106 new), 541 confirmed deaths (30 probable)
- Somerset County: 20,769 confirmed cases (100 new), 699 confirmed deaths (104 probable)
- Atlantic County: 21,516 confirmed cases (90 new), 569 confirmed deaths (32 probable)
- Warren County: 7,272 confirmed cases (61 new), 199 confirmed deaths (25 likely)
- Sussex County: 9,096 confirmed cases (57 new), 214 confirmed deaths (65 likely)
- Cumberland County: 12,884 confirmed cases (51 new), 358 confirmed deaths (37 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 7,153 confirmed cases (49 new), 114 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Salem County: 4,568 confirmed cases (48 new), 155 confirmed deaths (12 probable)
- Cape May County: 3,998 confirmed cases (11 new), 163 confirmed deaths (28 probable)
HOSPITALIZATIONS
Number of daily admissions on March 22.
There were 2,066 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey’s 71 hospitals on Monday night – 73 more than the night before, according to the state panel.
This included 433 in critical or intensive care (five more than the previous day), with 234 in ventilators (17 more).
There were also 185 patients with COVID-19 were discharged on Monday.
Hospitalizations peaked in more than 8,000 patients during the first wave of the pandemic in April.
SCHOOL CASES
New Jersey reported 188 outbreaks of coronavirus in schools, which resulted in 890 cases among students, teachers and school staff this school year, according to the state panel.
The state defines school outbreaks as cases in which contact trackers determined that two or more students or school staff captured or transmitted COVID-19 in the classroom or during academic activities at the school. 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.
There are about 1.4 million public school students and teachers across the state, although teaching methods in the midst of the outbreak have varied, with some schools teaching in person, some using a hybrid format and others remaining entirely remote.
Murphy called on Wednesday for more New Jersey schools to return to face-to-face education. He also said that officials are “fully expecting” that schools in New Jersey will return to personal learning “safely and responsibly” when the next school year begins in September.
AGE DISSOLUTION
Separated by age, those 30 to 49 years old constitute the highest percentage of New Jersey residents who caught the virus (30.9%), followed by those 50-64 (23%), 18-29 (19.7%) , 65 -79 (10.7%), 5-17 (8.9%), 80 and older (4.8%) and 0-4 (1.8%).
On average, the virus was more deadly for older residents, especially those with pre-existing illnesses. Almost half of COVID-19 deaths in the state occurred among residents aged 80 and over (47.07%), followed by those 65-79 (32.79%), 50-64 (15.68%), 30- 49 (4.05%), 18-29 (0.37%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0.02%).
At least 7,972 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths occurred among residents and staff members in nursing homes and other long-term care institutions.
There are active outbreaks in 240 facilities, resulting in 4,275 active cases among residents and 4,855 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Tuesday morning, there were 124 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a count running by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.75 million people died of coronavirus-related complications.
The United States reported the majority of cases, with more than 29.8 million, and the majority of deaths, with more than 542,900.
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Matt Arco can be contacted at [email protected].