New Jersey health officials on Friday reported another 3,723 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 93 additional deaths, as the vaccination effort increased to 925,000 doses administered after a setback due to a prolonged winter storm earlier this week.
The seven-day average for confirmed positive tests dropped to 3,232, down 28% from the previous week and 30% from a month ago. That’s the lowest seven-day average for new cases since November 14.
Governor Phil Murphy provided the latest update at a coronavirus meeting in Trenton, hours after signing a law 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.
Murphy said more than 745,000 first doses of the vaccines were administered as the number of daily injections increased.
“They are not only growing, but the growth rate is gaining strength,” said Murphy. “Last week, the number of starting doses increased by more than 135,400. This is an increase of 22%. And, the number of residents who have already received both doses – whether the Moderna vaccine or Pfizer – has increased to 69,258. And that’s an increase of almost 63% in just the past seven days. It is evident that we need more doses. “
Murphy said that 71 New Jersey hospitals reported 2,916 hospitalized patients with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19, 66 patients less than the day before. The number for Murphy’s hospital differed from the number reported in the state panel.
New Jersey has already lost 21,886 residents in the nearly 11-month outbreak – 19,699 confirmed deaths and 2,187 considered likely. The state recorded 351 confirmed deaths in the first five days of February. The death toll in January was 2,377 confirmed fatalities, the highest number in any month since May.
The total number of confirmed cases is now 637,357 in more than 9.5 million PCR tests. There were also 75,967 positive antigen tests, that the state recently started reporting 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 0.092 from 0.94 on Thursday. Any number below 1 indicates that the outbreak is decreasing.
The rate of positivity of the exams performed on Monday, the last available day, was 6.83% of the 17,884 exams administered. The test numbers for the first half of this week, however, were probably distorted by a monstrous snowstorm that buried half the state in more than a foot of snow with totals over 30 inches in places.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live Map Tracker | Newsletter | Home page
COUNTY NUMBERS BY COUNTY (sorted by the youngest)
- Bergen County: 61,778 confirmed cases (486 new), 2,231 confirmed deaths (273 likely)
- Passaic County: 48,298 confirmed cases (378 new), 1,451 confirmed deaths (163 probable)
- Ocean County: 46,235 confirmed cases (345 new), 1,599 confirmed deaths (104 likely)
- Middlesex County: 61,269 confirmed cases (333 new), 1,747 confirmed deaths (221 likely)
- Hudson County: 57,817 confirmed cases (322 new), 1,715 confirmed deaths (173 likely)
- Essex County: 61,125 confirmed cases (310 new), 2,306 confirmed deaths (257 likely)
- Monmouth County: 45,720 confirmed cases (242 new), 1,194 confirmed deaths (109 probable)
- Morris County: 28,511 confirmed cases (203 new), 859 confirmed deaths (216 likely)
- Burlington County: 28,587 confirmed cases (172 new), 645 confirmed deaths (49 probable)
- Union County: 45,280 confirmed cases (165 new), 1,502 confirmed deaths (190 likely)
- Atlantic County: 17,775 confirmed cases (141 new), 475 confirmed deaths (24 probable)
- Camden County: 37,009 confirmed cases (139 new), 978 confirmed deaths (71 probable)
- Somerset County: 16,745 confirmed cases (108 new), 658 confirmed deaths (97 probable)
- Gloucester County: 19,528 confirmed cases (101 new), 486 confirmed deaths (22 probable)
- Mercer County: 24,139 confirmed cases (82 new), 791 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Cumberland County: 11,048 confirmed cases (55 new), 296 confirmed deaths (18 probable)
- Sussex County: 7,070 confirmed cases (31 new), 203 confirmed deaths (57 likely)
- Warren County: 5,655 confirmed cases (31 new), 185 confirmed deaths (16 likely)
- Salem County: 3,986 confirmed cases (22 new), 138 confirmed deaths (12 probable)
- Cape May County: 3,293 confirmed cases (21 new), 143 confirmed deaths (22 likely)
- Hunterdon County: 5,487 confirmed cases (17 new), 97 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
VACCINATIONS
So far, 925,579 doses of vaccines have been administered in New Jersey, according to the state panel. Of these, 745,552 were the first of the two doses that people will receive.
That is more than 1.43 million doses the state has received from the federal government, according to a count by the Federal Centers for Disease Control.
This week’s winter storm forced all six of the state’s mega sites, as well as probably many other facilities that provide vaccines, to close for two days.
VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY
- ATLANTIC COUNTY: 28,650 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY: 102,248 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY: 46,344 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY: 53,393 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY: 13,972 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY: 13,934 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTY: 72,856 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY: 31,958 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY: 42,429 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY: 12,429 doses administered
- MERCER COUNTY: 25,450 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTY: 68,625 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY: 70,246 doses administered
- MORRIS COUNTY: 67,385 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY: 56,295 doses administered
- PASSAICO COUNTY: 43,984 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY: 5,996 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTY: 35,856 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTY: 15,048 doses administered
- UNION COUNTY: 45,128 doses administered
- WARREN COUNTY: 9,025 doses administered
- OUT OF STATE: 33,632 doses administered
- UNKNOWN COUNTY: 30,696 doses administered
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 2,916 hospitalized patients with confirmed (2,623) or suspected (202) cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey’s 71 hospitals on Thursday night.
This included 515 in critical or intensive care, with 342 in ventilators.
There were also 436 patients with COVID-19 who were discharged on Thursday, while 377 patients were admitted, according to Murphy.
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 reached a high of 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 largest percentage of New Jersey residents who contracted the virus (31.1%), followed by those aged 50-64 (23.5%), 18-29 (19, 3%), 65-79 (11.1%), 5-17 (7.9%), 80 and older (5.3%) and 0-4 (1.6%).
On average, the virus was more deadly for older residents, especially those with pre-existing illnesses. Almost half of deaths by COVID-19 in the state occurred among residents aged 80 or over (47.49%), followed by those aged 65-79 (32.56%), 50-64 (15.52%), 30 -49 (4.05%), 18-29 (0.36%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0.02%).
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 morning, there were more than 104.9 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a count running by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.28 million people died of coronavirus-related complications.
The United States reported the majority of cases, over 26.68 million, and the majority of deaths, over 455,800.
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Matt Arco can be contacted at [email protected].