New Jersey on Saturday reported another 3,783 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 78 additional deaths, while the number of vaccinees continued to increase, while some 250,000 doses of vaccine destined for the state were expected to help with the difficult implementation.
Governor Phil Murphy’s latest update was posted on Twitter and comes a day after signing a bill to expand outdoor dining options to restaurants, bars and distilleries. In addition, the increase in indoor dining capacity from 25% to 35% took effect on Friday morning. Other locations, including gyms, personal care services and casinos were included in the 35% expansion.
The 71 New Jersey hospitals reported 2,895 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, 21 patients less than the day before. The number of patients in intensive care has skyrocketed to 737, an increase of 222 over the previous day.
New Jersey has already lost 21,964 residents in the nearly 11-month outbreak – 19,777 confirmed deaths and 2,187 likely. The state recorded 429 confirmed deaths in the first six days of February. The death toll in January was 2,377 confirmed deaths, the highest number in any month since May.
The total number of confirmed cases is now 641,087 in more than 9.5 million PCR tests. There were also 76,748 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 they are sometimes administered together.
The transmission rate reported on Friday fell to 0.9 from 0.92 on Friday. Any number below 1 indicates that the outbreak is decreasing.
The positivity rate for tests performed on Tuesday, the last available day, was 8.53% of the 30,160 tests administered. However, test numbers for the first half of this week are likely to be skewed by a huge snowstorm that poured more than 30 inches of snow with totals of more than 30 inches at some points in the Garden State.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live Map Tracker | Newsletter | Home page
COUNTY NUMBERS BY COUNTY (sorted by the youngest)
- Bergen County: 62,195 confirmed cases (424 new), 2,234 confirmed deaths (273 probable)
- Middlesex County: 61,690 confirmed cases (416 new), 1,757 confirmed deaths (221 likely)
- Ocean County: 46,570 confirmed cases (334 new), 1,611 confirmed deaths (104 likely)
- Monmouth County: 46,029 confirmed cases (310 new), 1,199 confirmed deaths (109 probable)
- Hudson County: 58,113 confirmed cases (298 new), 1,720 confirmed deaths (173 likely)
- Essex County: 61,417 confirmed cases (292 new), 2,310 confirmed deaths (257 likely)
- Passaic County: 48,483 confirmed cases (224 new), 1,455 confirmed deaths (163 probable)
- Union County: 45,494 confirmed cases (219 new), 1,505 confirmed deaths (190 likely)
- Morris County: 28,705 confirmed cases (192 new), 860 confirmed deaths (216 likely)
- Atlantic County: 17,920 confirmed cases (147 new), 483 confirmed deaths (24 likely)
- Burlington County: 28,727 confirmed cases (139 new), 647 confirmed deaths (49 probable)
- Mercer County: 24,275 confirmed cases (131 new), 795 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Somerset County: 16,869 confirmed cases (125 new), 659 confirmed deaths (97 probable)
- Camden County: 37,126 confirmed cases (119 new), 981 confirmed deaths (71 probable)
- Gloucester County: 19,614 confirmed cases (82 new), 490 confirmed deaths (22 probable)
- Cumberland County: 11,134 confirmed cases (80 new), 298 confirmed deaths (18 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 5,560 confirmed cases (72 new), 98 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Sussex County: 7,129 confirmed cases (59 new), 203 confirmed deaths (57 likely)
- Cape May County: 3,339 confirmed cases (42 new), 145 confirmed deaths (22 likely)
- Warren County: 5,690 confirmed cases (35 new), 189 confirmed deaths (16 probable)
- Salem County: 3,998 confirmed cases (12 new), 138 confirmed deaths (12 probable)
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 2,895 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey’s 71 hospitals on Friday night.
This included 737 in critical or intensive care, with 380 in ventilators. There were also 333 patients with COVID-19 who were discharged on Friday.
Hospitalizations have declined slowly in recent weeks. Monday marked the first time in eight days that the number of people hospitalized has increased. The state peaked at more than 8,000 hospitalizations in April.
SCHOOL CASES
New Jersey officials have reported six new outbreaks of the virus in schools, bringing the total to 137 outbreaks and 655 cases among students, teachers and school staff, according to the latest figures.
Outbreaks – defined as cases in which it was confirmed that people contracted or transmitted the virus in the classroom or during academic activities – were recorded in all 21 municipalities, 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.
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 (31.1%), followed by those aged 50-64 (23.5%), 18-29 (19, 4%), 65-79 (11.1%), 5-17 (8%), 80 and older (5.2%) 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 (46.9%), followed by those aged 65-79 (33.3%), 50-64 (15.5%), 30 -49 (3.9%), 18-29 (0.4%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0%).
At least 7,797 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 increased again at a more pronounced rate in recent months, with deaths in state nursing homes nearly tripling in December.
There are currently active outbreaks in 419 facilities, resulting in 7,055 active cases among residents and 7,166 among employees.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Friday morning, there were more than 10,535 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a count running by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.3 million people died from coronavirus-related complications.
The USA reported the majority of cases, with more than 26.81 million, and the majority of deaths, with more than 459,500.
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Rodrigo Torrejon can be found at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.