Health officials in New Jersey on Saturday reported 5,246 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus and 96 additional deaths as hospitalizations increased and vaccinations became scarce.
After criticism of the deployment of vaccines by the state and the difficulty in getting an appointment, Governor Phil Murphy responded on Saturday, saying the US Department of Health and Human Services had earlier assured the state that he would take doses from his national reserve receive. The Washington Post reports that despite federal officials announcing that more vaccines will be released from a reserve, national supplies have already been depleted.
‘Governors are through @HHSGov that we will receive additional vaccines from the national reserve for seniors, health workers and first responders, ”Murphy wrote on Twitter. “We need answers as to why this stock does not exist and our allocations have been reduced as we expected.”
Murphy added that the vaccine will be distributed to those at a ‘higher risk’ of severe cases of COVID-19 due to their age and underlying conditions.
“Our first priority is to vaccinate people at higher risk for severe COVID due to age and chronic health factors – and to have the infrastructure in place to quickly sharpen the distribution when the federal supply meets the demand,” ” Murphy wrote on Twitter.
There were 3,677 patients admitted to the hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases as of Friday night. That was 134 more than the previous night and an increase after two days where the number of people admitted to the hospital decreased.
The state of 9 million residents now lost 20,414 residents during the COVID-19 outbreak – 18,323 confirmed deaths and 2091 are considered likely, according to state data. New Jersey has already announced 1,226 confirmed deaths this month after 1890 in December.
New Jersey has now reported 560,423 confirmed cases out of more than 8.6 million tests administered since officials announced the first case on March 4th. There were also 61,662 positive rapid antigen tests, which the state began reporting to the public last week, although the state warned that could overlap with the confirmed PCR tests.
The nationwide COVID-19 transmission rate rose slightly to 1.12 on Saturday, from 1.11 a day earlier. A transmission rate of more than 1 indicates that the outbreak is spreading.
The positivity rate for tests offered on Tuesday, the most recent day, was 10.24% from 58,095 tests. The positivity rate has been 10% or higher since December 22, before falling below 10% on Monday.
New Jersey’s top health official warned Wednesday that the state is prepared for an ‘increase’ in hospitalizations of the latest cases that could come early next week and that could cause a new round of restrictions, especially with elective surgeries.
While hospitalizations remained between 3,500 and 3,900 for weeks, well below the peak of more than 8,000 in the spring, Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said hospital officials were worried about the coming weeks due to available staff.
“What we will not have is the appropriate level of staff that people know, conventional staff,” Persichilli said earlier. “We will therefore work with our hospitals if they have to progress to what we call an emergency staff and hopefully never a crisis staff.”
Murphy warned that hospitalizations of more than 5,000 patients are likely to cause new restrictions, particularly with regard to elective surgeries, including procedures such as tumor removal.
VACCINATIONS
More than 327,600 doses of the vaccine were administered in the state, according to the COVID-19 dashboard Saturday. Of these, 289,620 were the first of two doses people would receive according to the dashboard, while 37,921 were the second.
The one-day high so far on January 8, according to the state, was 24,482 doses administered.
New Jersey averaged about 9,500 shots per day during the first 30 days of the program, including Christmas Day when no doses were administered. The state has averaged about 17,000 shots a day over the past seven days, according to state records.
The state has faced criticism for starting vaccinations too slowly. Officials stress that there may be an underestimation in the number of vaccines administered as a result of delays, and that New Jersey, like other states, is dependent on the federal government for its supply.
Murphy announced Wednesday that people over the age of 65, as well as people with chronic health conditions and smokers, are eligible.
Officials said doses should be available to the general public by April or May. Health officials said they wanted to vaccinate 70% of its adult population – about 4.7 million people – by the end of May.
In recent days, the state has opened the first three of its six planned ‘mega-sites’ for mass vaccinations. Vaccines are also currently available at 130 locations across the state, including local health departments, ShopRite stores and pharmacies.
More than 1.5 million people have registered to get their vaccine.
Vaccine doses appointed by country
- ATLANTIC COUNTRY – 10 980 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY – 37 314 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 15 685 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 18 275 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY – 4 744 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND-LAND – 5 114 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTY – 26 478 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 11 507 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY – 13 663 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 5 149 doses administered
- TRADE COUNTRY – 7 874 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTRY – 24,530 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 25 557 doses administered
- MORRIS COUNTRY – 23 779 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY – 17 549 doses administered
- PASSAIC COUNTY – 14 912 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY – 1 576 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTY – 12 980 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTRY – 5 627 doses administered
- UNION COUNTRY – 15 560 doses administered
- WARREN-LAND – 3 326 doses administered
- RESIDENTS FROM THE STATE – 15 748 doses administered
- UNKNOWN LAND – 9 709 doses administered
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 3,677 patients admitted to the hospital with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases as of Friday night. That was 134 more than the previous night, an increase after two days where hospitalizations had dropped.
This included 651 in critical or intensive care (25 more than the previous night), with 427 on ventilators (11 less).
There were 437 COVID-19 patients discharged Friday, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.
SCHOOL SUBJECTS
According to the state panel, there were 111 outbreaks of coronavirus in the school in New Jersey involving 564 students, teachers and staff.
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.
The number of school districts in New Jersey with distance education has increased as students return from the winter holidays, Murphy said Monday.
There are 339 districts starting 2021 remotely – an increase of 18 remote districts from 21 December. Only 77 school districts return with full personal tuition (by 82 on December 21), and 348 return with a hybrid of personal or distance education (down from 362).
Another 47 districts use a combination of personal, hybrid or remote control across several buildings – one more than December 21st.
AGE BREAKS OUT
The age group of 30 to 49 years is the largest percentage of New Jersey residents who contracted the virus (31.2%), followed by those 50-64 (23.7%), 18-29 (19.2%), 65-79 (11.1%), 80 and older (5.4%), 5-17 (7.5%) and 0-4 (1.5%).
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 65-79 (32.9%), 50-64 (15.7%), 30-49 (4%) ), 18-29 (0.4%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0%).
At least 7,644 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 426 facilities, resulting in 6,802 active cases among residents and 7,368 among staff.
GENERAL NUMBERS
As of Saturday morning, there were more than 93.9 million positive COVID-19 tests worldwide, according to a running score from Johns Hopkins University. The world reached a bad measure this week, surpassing 2 million deaths due to coronavirus-related complications.
The U.S. reported the most cases, more than 23.5 million, and the most deaths, more than 392,300.
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Rodrigo Torrejon can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.