New Jersey health officials reported an additional 5,023 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Friday and 83 additional deaths, as vaccination doses approached 725,000 injections administered.
The seven-day average for new confirmed cases increased to 4,496, an increase of 6% over the previous week and 14% over the previous month. Hospitalizations dropped to 3,116, the lowest rate since November 30.
Governor Phil Murphy announced the latest figures during a coronavirus meeting in Trenton and the state is administering about 25,000 doses per day on average.
“We are working every day to maximize every dose we receive and to administer to as many people as our supply allows,” said Murphy. “As the federal government increases our quota, we will be able to open for more appointments. And, as we will now know what our quota will be three weeks later, we will be able to make long-term decisions to improve our vaccine program. “
New Jersey has already lost 21,383 residents in the nearly 11-month outbreak, with 19,254 confirmed deaths and 2,129 likely. The death toll in January rose to 2,274 confirmed deaths, the highest number in any month since May.
Murphy said the most recent positive rate for tests performed on Monday, the most recent day available, was 8.37% of the 65,709 tests performed.
The transmission rate remained 0.91 for the third consecutive day. Any number below 1 indicates that the outbreak is decreasing.
The total number of confirmed cases is now 615,202 in more than 9.2 million positive tests. There were also 72,067 positive antigen tests, which the state recently started to report publicly. These cases are considered likely and health officials have warned that positive antigen tests can override confirmed PCR tests, because sometimes they are administered together.
Murphy announced that he is extending the ban on interstate sports to certain age groups, including high school programs, which was set to expire on Sunday. The ban was first announced in November.
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VACCINATIONS
724,371 doses of vaccines have been administered in New Jersey so far, according to the state panel. Of these, 610,110 were the first of two doses that people will receive.
That is more than 1.23 million doses the state has received from the federal government, according to an ongoing count by the Federal Centers for Disease Control.
All six of the state’s vaccine mega-sites have already opened along with about 200 other sites across the state, although some mega-sites have suspended operations for a day after running out of doses.
Murphy said on Wednesday that the state can now expect about 130,000 doses from the federal government in the next three weeks, up from 100,000, but demand is still outstripping supply in the state.
“We still have a big imbalance between supply and demand. We’re still going to deal with that in the coming weeks, ”said Murphy during an interview with CNN.
VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY
- ATLANTIC COUNTY – 21,300 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY – 80,834 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 35,689 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 42,475 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY- 10,507 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 11,082 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTY – 56,644 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 24,517 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY – 34,321 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 10,124 doses administered
- MERCER COUNTY – 18,742 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 53,984 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 55,267 doses administered
- MORRIS COUNTY – 53,316 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY – 43,064 doses administered
- PASSAICO COUNTY – 34,238 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY – 4,400 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTY – 27,970 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTY – 11,712 doses administered
- UNION COUNTY – 35,594 doses administered
- WARREN COUNTY – 7,349 doses administered
- UNKNOWN COUNTY – 23,720 doses administered
- OUT OF STATE – 27,522 doses administered
COUNTY BY COUNTY NUMBERS (ranked by most new cases)
- Essex County: 59,188 confirmed cases (641 new), 2,279 confirmed deaths (255 likely)
- Middlesex County: 58,890 confirmed cases (538 new), 1,695 confirmed deaths (217 likely)
- Bergen County: 59,421 confirmed cases (470 new), 2,197 confirmed deaths (268 likely)
- Monmouth County: 43,074 confirmed cases (464 new), 1,145 confirmed deaths (108 probable)
- Ocean County: 44,106 confirmed cases (400 new), 1,553 confirmed deaths (90 probable)
- Hudson County: 55,971 confirmed cases (384 new), 1,690 confirmed deaths (171 likely)
- Morris County: 27,243 confirmed cases (303 new), 844 confirmed deaths (207 probable)
- Passaic County: 46,768 confirmed cases (278 new), 1,432 confirmed deaths (163 probable)
- Camden County: 36,092 confirmed cases (264 new), 937 confirmed deaths (69 probable)
- Union County: 44,115 confirmed cases (182 new), 1,480 confirmed deaths (186 probable)
- Burlington County: 27,570 confirmed cases (174 new), 635 confirmed deaths (48 probable)
- Gloucester County: 18,946 confirmed cases (164 new), 472 confirmed deaths (22 likely)
- Atlantic County: 17,021 confirmed cases (160 new), 445 confirmed deaths (22 likely)
- Mercer County: 23,425 confirmed cases (152 new), 776 confirmed deaths (38 probable)
- Somerset County: 16,123 confirmed cases (117 new), 647 confirmed deaths (96 probable)
- Cumberland County: 10,650 confirmed cases (99 new), 284 confirmed deaths (14 probable)
- Sussex County: 6,804 confirmed cases (62 new), 198 confirmed deaths (55 probable)
- Warren County: 5,399 confirmed cases (52 new), 183 confirmed deaths (15 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 5,257 confirmed cases (40 new), 93 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Salem County: 3,850 confirmed cases (33 new), 129 confirmed deaths (11 probable)
- Cape May County: 3,162 confirmed cases (9 new), 140 confirmed deaths (20 probable)
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 3,116 hospitalized patients with confirmed (2,884) or suspected (232) cases of COVID-19 at New Jersey’s 71 hospitals on Wednesday night. That’s five less than the day before.
This included 563 in critical or intensive care (15 less than the night before), with 378 on ventilators (28 less).
There were also 363 patients with COVID-19 who were discharged on Thursday, according to the state’s COVID-19 panel.
Murphy said any hospitalization of more than 5,000 patients would likely trigger new rounds of restrictions. But the number of people hospitalized, for the most part, has slowed slowly in the past few days, after hitting 3,873 people in more than seven months on December 22.
The state reached a high of more than 8,000 hospitalizations in April.
SCHOOL CASES
At least 629 students and staff in 131 school districts in New Jersey have contracted COVID-19 through school outbreaks, according to the latest update from state health officials.
This is an increase of 10 districts 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.
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.
AGE DISSOLUTION
Separated by age, those aged 30 to 49 constitute the highest percentage of New Jersey residents who caught the virus (31.2%), followed by those 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 COVID-19 deaths 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 7,713 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths 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 435 facilities, resulting in 7,338 active cases among residents and 7,929 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Friday, there were more than 101.5 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a count running by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.19 million people died of coronavirus-related complications.
The USA reported the majority of cases, with more than 25.7 million, and the majority of deaths, with more than 433,200.
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Matt Arco can be contacted at [email protected].