One day after Christmas, many of the key numbers used to track COVID-19 continued to fall, although the deadly virus continued to cause damage.
New Jersey reported another 4,000 cases of coronavirus and 19 additional COVID-19 deaths confirmed on Saturday, while hospitalizations continued to fall and the statewide transmission rate was below the primary benchmark of 1.
The state recorded 51 additional deaths on Friday.
Governor Phil Murphy urged residents to keep meetings small, with only people in their immediate family bubble during the Christmas and New Year celebrations to avoid an increase after the holidays.
The rate of transmission of the virus across the state did not fall, remaining at 0.95, but still remained below 1. Before Saturday, the rate fell for 12 consecutive days to 0.95, the lowest since September 2.
Any number above 1 means that each person receiving COVID-19 is spreading the disease to more than one person, and getting the rate below 1 is considered the key to suppressing the pandemic.
Hospitalizations across the state dropped to 3,431 patients in treatment of confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases on Friday night. This is much smaller than the more than 8,000 patients at the peak of the first wave in April. Hospitalizations have hovered above 3,500 since December 8, with Saturday falling below the benchmark.
The number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care continued to fall, from 753 on Thursday night to 724 on Friday night. The number of patients on ventilators has also dropped to 478.
Officials say the highest percentage of new cases – more than 60% – are the result of transmission in private settings and come from across the state.
Since the outbreak began in March, New Jersey has reported 458,901 cases in more than 7.46 million tests administered. These totals do not include rapid tests.
The state of 9 million residents recorded 18,613 deaths – 16,668 confirmed and 1,945 probable deaths from complications related to the virus.
SCHOOL CASES
The state on Wednesday reported seven new outbreaks confirmed in schools in New Jersey, which resulted in 31 new cases.
There have already been 105 confirmed outbreaks in schools across the state, resulting in 459 cases among students and staff in 98 schools.
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.
Extensive school rules, including guidelines for social distance from classrooms and strict mask requirements, have made schools one of the safest places in the state, he said. The governor said that of the 250,563 cases reported across the state since the beginning of the school year, only 2/10 of 1% are “screened for activities within our schools”.
AGE DISSOLUTION
Separated by age, those aged 30 to 49 constitute the highest percentage of New Jersey residents who caught the virus (31.4%), followed by those aged 50-64 (23.9%), 18-29 (19% ), 65-79 (11.2%), 80 and older (5.8%), 5-17 (6.9%) and 0-4 (1.4%).
On average, the virus was more deadly for older residents, especially people with pre-existing illnesses. Almost half of COVID-19 deaths in the state occurred among residents aged 80 and over (47.51%), followed by those aged 65-79 (32%), 50-64 (15.85%), 30-49 (4.25%), 18-29 (0.37%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0.02%).
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Saturday morning, there were more than 79.9 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a running count from Johns Hopkins University. More than 1.75 million people died of coronavirus-related complications.
The United States reported the majority of cases, with more than 18.7 million, and the majority of deaths, with more than 330,300.
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Rodrigo Torrejon can be found at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.