New Jersey reported an additional 3,347 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Friday and 35 additional confirmed deaths as Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccines began to be administered in the state, significantly increasing the number of sites offering vaccines.
Governor Phil Murphy announced the latest issue on social media after joining Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky at Union Plaza Apartments in Union City on Friday morning to watch some of the first doses being administered to the elderly.
“This is a big day in our fight to beat COVID,” said Murphy. “This vaccine is a game changer in our fight to protect residents, to save lives and to defeat this virus.”
There were about 2.33 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered in New Jersey on Friday morning, according to state data. This includes about 1.5 million first doses and 788,000 second doses.
That is more than 2.78 million doses the state has received, according to an ongoing count by the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s goal is to vaccinate 70% of its adult population – about 4.7 million people – in the coming months.
On Monday, the state announced that it was greatly expanding eligibility for the vaccine in the next four weeks, including teachers and transport workers on March 15 and several other essential workers, including restaurant workers, on March 29.
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Garden State’s seven-day average for new confirmed positive tests for coronavirus is 2,887, an increase of 12% over the previous week and an 11% decrease over the previous month.
In all, New Jersey has already reported 715,889 confirmed cases of coronavirus in more than 10.9 million CRP tests in the year since the state reported its first case on March 4, 2020. There were also 90,481 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 23,521 residents died from complications related to COVID-19, including 21,124 confirmed deaths and 2,397 deaths considered likely.
The statewide transmission rate increased again on Friday to 1.04, from 1.01 the previous day. Any number above 1 indicates that the outbreak is growing and each new case leads to at least one other case. The transmission rate was below 1 for weeks before it surpassed that mark on Thursday.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live Map Tracker | Newsletter | Home page
COUNTY BY COUNTY CASES (ranked by most new)
- Bergen County: 70,601 confirmed cases (442 new), 2,348 confirmed deaths (284 probable)
- Essex County: 68,739 confirmed cases (318 new), 2,425 confirmed deaths (275 probable)
- Monmouth County: 52,895 confirmed cases (313 new), 1,297 confirmed deaths (125 probable)
- Middlesex County: 68,871 confirmed cases (301 new), 1,888 confirmed deaths (235 likely)
- Hudson County: 64,908 confirmed cases (282 new), 1,838 confirmed deaths (185 probable)
- Ocean County: 53,133 confirmed cases (261 new), 1,760 confirmed deaths (127 probable)
- Morris County: 32,936 confirmed cases (221 new), 905 confirmed deaths (224 likely)
- Union County: 49,881 confirmed cases (202 new), 1,581 confirmed deaths (205 probable)
- Passaic County: 52,959 confirmed cases (200 new), 1,528 confirmed deaths (179 likely)
- Camden County: 39,944 confirmed cases (117 new), 1,081 confirmed deaths (91 likely)
- Burlington County: 31,373 confirmed cases (103 new), 696 confirmed deaths (57 probable)
- Mercer County: 26,560 confirmed cases (83 new), 844 confirmed deaths (41 likely)
- Somerset County: 19,066 confirmed cases (83 new), 685 confirmed deaths (103 likely)
- Atlantic County: 20,067 confirmed cases (74 new), 551 confirmed deaths (28 probable)
- Gloucester County: 21,369 confirmed cases (59 new), 523 confirmed deaths (30 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 6,480 confirmed cases (41 new), 109 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Warren County: 6,515 confirmed cases (40 new), 198 confirmed deaths (22 likely)
- Sussex County: 8,118 confirmed cases (38 new), 210 confirmed deaths (64 probable)
- Cumberland County: 12,321 confirmed cases (34 new), 346 confirmed deaths (29 probable)
- Salem County: 4,300 confirmed cases (20 new), 154 confirmed deaths (12 probable)
- Cape May County: 3,760 confirmed cases (13 new), 157 confirmed deaths (27 probable)
VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY
- ATLANTIC COUNTY – 75,609 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY – 266,063 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 120,936 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 137,278 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY – 35,268 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 34,139 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTY – 189,049 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 86,506 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY – 110,400 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 31,615 doses administered
- MERCER COUNTY – 77,851 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 187,877 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 182,668 doses administered
- MORRIS COUNTY – 173,570 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY – 151,116 doses administered
- PASSAICO COUNTY – 105,304 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY – 16,032 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTY – 94,344 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTY – 36,392 doses administered
- UNION COUNTY – 119,503 doses administered
- WARREN COUNTY – 23,697 doses administered
- UNKNOWN COUNTY – 14,397 doses administered
- OUT OF STATE – 64,109 doses administered
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 1,881 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in 71 New Jersey hospitals on Thursday night – 19 less than the night before, according to the state panel.
This included 389 in critical or intensive care (13 more than the previous night), with 223 in ventilators (nine more).
There were also 249 patients with COVID-19 were discharged on Thursday and 247 new patients were admitted.
Hospitalizations peaked at more than 8,000 patients during the first wave of the pandemic in April.
SCHOOL CASES
New Jersey reported 152 outbreaks of coronavirus in schools, which resulted in 737 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 picked up 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 of school or cases that cannot be confirmed as outbreaks at 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 said on Monday that, with teachers soon qualified to receive the vaccine, authorities are “fully expecting” that New Jersey schools will return to personal learning “safely and responsibly” when the next school year begins. September, if not earlier.
AGE DISSOLUTION
Separated by age, those 30 to 49 years old constitute the highest percentage of New Jersey residents who caught the virus (31%), followed by those 50-64 (23.2%), 18-29 (19.5%) , 65 -79 (10.9%), 5-17 (8.5%), 80 and older (5%) and 0-4 (1.7%).
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 (47.25%), followed by those 65-79 (32.76%), 50-64 (15.58%), 30- 49 (4.02%), 18-29 (0.37%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0.02%).
At least 7,923 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths occurred among residents and staff members in nursing homes and other long-term care institutions.
There are currently active outbreaks in 309 facilities, resulting in 6,099 active cases among residents and 6,214 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Friday afternoon, there were about 115.6 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a count running by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.56 million people died of coronavirus-related complications.
The United States reported the majority of cases, with more than 28.8 million, and the majority of deaths, about 520,300.
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Matt Arco can be contacted at [email protected].