New Jersey’s first coronavirus report in 2021 included 5,541 more cases and another 119 confirmed deaths from COVID-19, although the rate of spread and hospitalizations across the state from the disease fell for the third consecutive day.
Governor Phil Murphy announced the New Year’s Day update on the social networks Friday, the day after the number of deaths caused by the virus in Garden State exceeded 19,000 residents.
“As we start the new year, stay tuned,” tweeted Murphy. “Social distance. Mask. “
The governor also thanked the state residents and first respondents for what they suffered in the face of the pandemic in 2020.
“Grateful for ALL the residents of New Jersey who performed, stayed and joined together to take us through 2020,” tweeted Murphy. “A special shout out to our first respondents and those on the frontline of #COVID-19 crisis. On behalf of all nine million of us – THANK YOU. “
This is the first time since December 5 to 6 that the state has recorded consecutive days of more than 5,000 cases.
After three straight days below 3,000, New Jersey’s seven-day average for new positive tests is now 4,008, while the state continues to fight a second wave of the pandemic. Even so, this average fell 2% in relation to the previous month and 13% in the previous week.
Meanwhile, the state has announced 90 or more deaths in each of the past four days. Murphy did not say when the 119 deaths reported on Friday occurred. Some may have happened days, if not weeks ago, and have only recently been confirmed.
The statewide transmission rate dropped to 0.93 from 0.94 the previous day. The rate has fluctuated in recent days, but is the lowest since September 1. Any number above 1 means that each person receiving COVID-19 is spreading the disease to more than one person, and keeping the rate below 1 is critical to suppressing the pandemic.
The statewide positivity rate for Sunday, the date with the most recent data available, was 11.14%.
Hospitalizations across the state dropped for the third consecutive day, to 3,625 patients being treated for confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases on Thursday night. This is much lower than the more than 8,000 patients at the peak of the first wave in April. However, hospitalizations have been above 3,500 since December 8 and have fluctuated in recent days.
The number of COVID-19 intensive care patients remained stable at 693, but the number on ventilators increased to 471.
New Jersey has reported 482,861 cases of coronavirus in more than 7.79 million tests in the nearly 10 months since the state reported its first case on March 4.
The state of 9 million residents has already reported 19,160 deaths – 17,139 confirmed and 2,021 likely deaths from complications related to the virus.
Officials said the transmission rate was falling because cases were not increasing at the same rate as during the first wave in the spring, when the state was still learning how to fight the virus. They also say that deaths are likely to continue to increase, although the transmission rate is falling because deaths are a slow number.
VACCINATIONS AND RESTRICTIONS
Health officials administered the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines to nearly 63,000 midweek residents, the state said on Wednesday.
Authorities expect to vaccinate 70% of adult New Jersey residents – about 4.7 million people – in the next six months. The state is launching the vaccine in stages, with health professionals and people living in congregating environments such as nursing homes and prisons in the first phase. Authorities said the doses should be available to the general public in April or May.
New Jersey unveiled a website this week where people can apply for a vaccine “in the near future,” Murphy said on Wednesday. The website – covid19.nj.gov/vaccine – currently does not allow people to register or pre-register for the vaccine.
In the meantime, all indoor sports organized at the recreational levels of young people, schools and adults in New Jersey can be resumed on Saturday, with restrictions, after being put on hold for four weeks to help fight the pandemic.
COUNTY NUMBERS BY COUNTY (ranked by most new cases)
- Hudson County: 44,505 positive tests (565 new), 1,539 confirmed deaths (168 likely)
- Essex County: 47,699 positive tests (502 new), 2,149 confirmed deaths (250 likely)
- Monmouth County: 32,339 positive tests (494 new), 946 confirmed deaths (103 likely)
- Bergen County: 47,570 positive tests (473 new), 2,067 confirmed deaths (263 likely)
- Middlesex County: 45,268 positive tests (457 new), 1,464 confirmed deaths (219 likely)
- Ocean County: 32,872 positive tests (441 new), 1,299 confirmed deaths (82 likely)
- Union County: 36,834 positive tests (334 new), 1,378 confirmed deaths (181 likely)
- Passaic County: 40,161 positive tests (306 new), 1,303 confirmed deaths (157 probable)
- Morris County: 20,389 positive tests (294 new), 787 confirmed deaths (178 likely)
- Burlington County: 21461 positive tests (291 new), 576 confirmed deaths (51 likely)
- Camden County: 28,910 positive tests (281 new), 762 confirmed deaths (65 likely)
- Gloucester County: 14,293 positive tests (184 new), 380 confirmed deaths (17 likely)
- Mercer County: 18,920 positive tests (169 new), 685 confirmed deaths (40 likely)
- Somerset County: 12,760 positive tests (168 new), 578 confirmed deaths (88 likely)
- Atlantic County: 12,329 positive tests (138 new), 353 confirmed deaths (17 probable)
- Cumberland County: 7,952 positive tests (112 new), 219 confirmed deaths (10 probable)
- Sussex County: 4,542 positive tests (106 new), 172 confirmed deaths (43 likely)
- Warren County: 3,978 positive tests (56 new), 170 confirmed deaths (13 likely)
- Hunterdon County: 3,799 positive tests (55 new), 85 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Salem County: 2,793 positive tests (35 new), 105 confirmed deaths (7 probable)
- Cape May County: 2,412 positive tests (24 new), 122 confirmed deaths (15 probable)
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live Map Tracker | Newsletter | Home page
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 3,625 patients hospitalized in New Jersey with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 on Thursday night. That’s 91 less than the night before.
This number included 693 patients in critical or intensive care (the same as the previous night), with 471 on ventilators (nine more than the previous day).
There were 439 patients with COVID-19 discharged from hospitals on Thursday, according to the state’s coronavirus panel.
SCHOOL CASES
There have been 108 outbreaks of coronavirus in schools in New Jersey, involving 546 students, teachers and staff, since the beginning of the school year in late August, according to the state’s COVID-19 panel.
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 masking requirements, have made them one of the safest places in the state, the governor said.
But at least 83 students or staff caught COVID-19 at a school in Essex County in what appears to be the biggest reported outbreak in a single school building in New Jersey, according to new state data.
Although the state has released minimal information about the cases, most outbreaks involved 10 or fewer people infected with the virus in each school. In November, an unidentified Union County school reported an outbreak in which at least 23 people fell ill.
New Jersey defines school outbreaks as the cases in which contract 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 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 (5.7%), 5-17 (7%) and 0-4 (1.5%).
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 (32.8%), 50-64 (15.7%), 30-49 (4.1%), 18-29 (0.4%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0.02%).
At least 7,521 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 weeks. Currently, there are active outbreaks in 427 facilities, resulting in 5,681 active cases among residents and 6,171 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Friday afternoon, there were more than 83.7 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a running count from Johns Hopkins University. More than 1.82 million people died from complications related to the coronavirus.
The USA reported the majority of cases, with more than 20 million, and the majority of deaths, with more than 346,400.
Thank you for trusting us to provide the journalism you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a signature.
Brent Johnson can be contacted at [email protected].