Health officials in New Jersey on Wednesday reported another 3,950 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 107 additional deaths as hospitalizations dropped to the lowest number since late November.
The state’s average of seven days for newly confirmed COVID-19 positive tests is 4,325, up 9% from a week ago but up 4% from a month ago.
The total vaccination nationwide increased 642,603 doses on Wednesday when the state of federal authorities learned that additional vaccine doses would be available over the next three weeks.
“However, make no mistake that we – like every other state – need to significantly increase vaccine production and delivery,” Governor Phil Murphy said as he unveiled the latest figures at a briefing in Trenton. “We only need the doses to run our program, as it is purposeful to run.”
In New Jersey’s 71 hospitals, 3,190 patients were reported Tuesday night, a decrease of 61 from a day earlier and the least number of patients since November 30. It is also 18% lower than a recent high on 22 December.
The pandemic has killed at least 21,220 people in the state since the first COVID-19 deaths in March, including 19,091 confirmed deaths and 2,129 as possible deaths due to the virus. The probable deaths were revised higher on Wednesday by eight deaths. New Jersey reported 2,109 deaths in January, the deadliest month since the outbreak since May.
New Jersey has now reported 606,492 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the nearly 11 months since the first positive test on March 4th. Another 70,045 cases of antibody tests were reported, although this is considered likely and possibly overlaps with the confirmed tests.
The positivity rate for tests available on Saturday, the latest day, was 12.62%, based on 25,509 tests.
The transmission rate is 0.91, lower than 0.92 a day earlier. Any number below 1 indicates that the outbreak is slower.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live card tracker | Newsletter | Home
COUNTRY-TO-COUNTRY AFFAIRS (sorted by most new)
- Middlesex County: 57,975 confirmed cases (415 new), 1,674 confirmed deaths (217 likely)
- Bergen County: 58,618 confirmed cases (407 new), 2,189 confirmed deaths (268 likely)
- Essex County: 58,162 confirmed cases (404 new), 2,267 confirmed deaths (255 likely)
- Monmouth County: 43,338 confirmed cases (336 new), 1,128 confirmed deaths (108 likely)
- Passaic County: 46,341 confirmed cases (330 new), 1,422 confirmed deaths (163 likely)
- Ocean County: 43,263 confirmed cases (295 new), 1,541 confirmed deaths (90 likely)
- Hudson County: 55,192 confirmed cases (288 new), 1,677 confirmed deaths (171 likely)
- Morris County: 26,724 confirmed cases (228 new), 840 confirmed deaths (207 likely)
- Union County: 43,747 confirmed cases (184 new), 1,468 confirmed deaths (186 likely)
- Camden County: 35,657 confirmed cases (182 new), 923 confirmed deaths (69 likely)
- Burlington County: 27,274 confirmed cases (157 new), 631 confirmed deaths (48 likely)
- Gloucester County: 18,656 confirmed cases (145 new), 467 confirmed deaths (22 likely)
- Mercer County: 23,155 confirmed cases (127 new), 765 confirmed deaths (38 likely)
- Atlantic County: 16,727 confirmed cases (111 new), 438 confirmed deaths (22 likely)
- Cumberland County: 10,498 confirmed cases (75 new), 279 confirmed deaths (14 likely)
- Somerset County: 15,893 confirmed cases (75 new), 642 confirmed deaths (96 likely)
- Warren County: 5,304 confirmed cases (49 new), 183 confirmed deaths (15 likely)
- Sussex County: 6,690 confirmed cases (45 new), 198 confirmed deaths (55 likely)
- Hunterdon County: 5,186 confirmed cases (38 new), 93 confirmed deaths (54 likely)
- Cape May County: 3,132 confirmed cases (28 new), 140 confirmed deaths (20 likely)
- Salem County: 3800 confirmed cases (13 new), 126 confirmed deaths (11 likely)
VACCINATIONS
According to the state dashboard, 642,613 doses of vaccines have been administered in New Jersey so far. Of these, 550,526 were the first of two doses that people would receive.
This is evident from more than 1 million doses the state has received from the federal government, according to a running version of the federal Centers for Disease Control.
All six of the state’s mega-sites have now opened, along with about 200 other locations across the country.
According to data from the CDC, New Jersey has been criticized for having a slower response than dozens of other states.
Murphy said Wednesday that the state can now expect about 130,000 doses from the federal government over the next three weeks, up from 100,000, but demand is still rising far more than supply in the state.
“We still have a large imbalance between supply and demand. We will continue to cut it for weeks on end, “Murphy said during a CNN interview.
VACCINATIONS BY COUNTRY:
- ATLANTIC COUNTRY – 18 999 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY – 70 004 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 31 574 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 37 430 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY – 9,091 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 9,775 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTRY – 51,631 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 22 110 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY – 30,031 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 9,411 doses administered
- TRADE COUNTRY – 16 035 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTRY – 47,872 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 49 120 doses administered
- MORRIS LAND – 47 119 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY – 39 378 doses administered
- PASSAIC COUNTY – 30 080 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY – 3 478 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTRY – 25 327 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTY – 10 127 doses administered
- UNION COUNTRY – 31 613 doses administered
- UNKNOWN LAND – 20 804 doses administered
- WARREN-LAND – 6,322 doses administered
- OUTSIDE – 25 282 doses administered
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 3,190 patients admitted to the hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases in the 71 hospitals in New Jersey. That’s 61 less than the previous day.
It included 578 in critical or intensive care, with 406 fans.
Also, 416 COVID-19 patients were discharged Monday, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Murphy said hospitalizations of more than 5,000 patients are likely to cause new constraints. But the number of people admitted to hospital has been declining mostly slowly in recent days after hitting a peak of more than seven months on December 22 of 3,873 people.
SCHOOL SUBJECTS
At least 629 students and staff in 131 school districts in New Jersey have caught COVID-19 through school outbreaks, according to the latest update from state health officials.
This is an increase of ten districts from the previous weekly report. There are now confirmed outbreaks in the school in all 21 provinces, although the state does not identify the individual school districts.
These numbers do not include students or staff who are suspected of being infected outside the school, or cases that cannot be confirmed as outbreaks in the school. Although the numbers continue to rise every week, Murphy said the statistics for school outbreaks are lower than government officials expected when schools reopened for personal classes.
New Jersey defines school outbreaks as cases where contact detectives determined that two or more students or school staff caught or transmitted COVID-19 in the classroom or during academic activities at school.
AGE BREAKS OUT
Degraded by age, those aged 30 to 49 form the largest percentage of New Jersey residents who contracted the virus (31.2%), followed by those aged 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 to older residents, especially those with a pre-existing condition. Nearly half of COVID-19 deaths were among residents 80 and older (47%), followed by those 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 COVID-19 deaths in the state were among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. The number has risen sharply again in recent months, with deaths at the state’s old age homes almost tripling in December.
There are currently active outbreaks at 435 facilities, resulting in 7,338 active cases among residents and 7,929 among staff members.
GENERAL NUMBERS
According to a Wednesday morning, there were more than 100 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a current count from Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.16 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.
The US reported the most cases, more than 25.4 million and the most deaths, more than 425,200.
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Matt Arco can be reached at [email protected].