New Jersey on Saturday reported another 3,924 new cases of coronavirus and 24 additional deaths as Gov. Phil Murphy cautioned state residents to “stay vigilant” and called for people to keep themselves informed.
Prior to Saturday, the number of new cases had risen above 4,000 for 10 of the past 14 days. Along with Saturday’s slight drop in cases, the rate of transmission monitoring the spread of the virus went down from 1.18 on Friday to 1.16. Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalized increased.
Any number above one for the rate of transmission means the virus is still spreading and New Jersey’s 7-day rolling average is 4,091. It’s up 4% from a week ago, and 213% higher than a month ago.
Though the seven-day average of cases has been higher than the pandemic’s first wave, the comparison can be deceiving because the state was conducting less than 12,000 tests a day in the spring and the outbreak was likely undercounted. The state is now averaging around 45,000 tests a day, and that does not include recently deployed rapid tests.
There have now been a total of 330,275 cases in the state and 16,965 deaths, which includes 15,136 lab-confirmed deaths and 1,829 deemed probable.
Ten of New Jersey’s 21 counties reported at least 100 new cases led by Middlesex County with 216 positive tests.
The latest numbers were reported days after Thanksgiving, when Murphy warned families not to gather to avoid spreading the virus and a day after Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year.
Murphy announced Wednesday that New Jersey is abandoning the state-by-state formula it has used the last five months to determine its travel quarantine advisory formula, as virtually the entire country qualified for the list. Instead, he said anybody traveling to any places that aren’t neighboring states should abide by a 14-day quarantine.
Officials say initial doses of a coronavirus vaccine could arrive in New Jersey by Christmas, with priority going to vulnerable residents and health care workers. But a larger rollout could happen by April or May.
Still, Murphy has warned the next few months will be “brutal” as more people head indoors because of the colder weather and with the stretch of winter holidays ahead. Officials are calling on residents to keep wearing masks, practicing social distancing, washing hands and limiting gatherings.
Murphy has also said the state is trying to limit restrictions used to fight the virus, but has not ruled out another statewide shutdown like he ordered in the spring.
The governor has also said its goal is to keep as much in-person learning at schools as possible.
COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS (sorted by most new cases)
- Middlesex County: 29,817 positive tests (216 new), 1,281 confirmed deaths (205 probable)
- Bergen County: 34,083 positive tests (206 new), 1,871 confirmed deaths (250 probable)
- Hudson County: 30,928 positive tests (200 new), 1,413 confirmed deaths (159 probable)
- Passaic County: 29,281 positive tests (191 new), 1,167 confirmed deaths (144 probable)
- Morris County: 13,312 positive tests (162 new), 712 confirmed deaths (147 probable)
- Essex County: 34,632 positive tests (160 new), 1,994 confirmed deaths (233 probable)
- Ocean County: 21,457 positive tests (152 new), 1,056 confirmed deaths (68 probable)
- Monmouth County: 20,036 positive tests (121 new), 808 confirmed deaths (92 probable)
- Camden County: 18,497 positive tests (119 new), 616 confirmed deaths (57 probable)
- Union County: 27,803 positive tests (103 new), 1,263 confirmed deaths (170 probable)
- Mercer County: 13,485 positive tests (74 new), 623 confirmed deaths (37 probable)
- Atlantic County: 7,823 positive tests (70 new), 276 confirmed deaths (14 probable)
- Somerset County: 8,908 positive tests (67 new), 534 confirmed deaths (75 probable)
- Burlington County: 13,284 positive tests (63 new), 499 confirmed deaths (44 probable)
- Gloucester County: 8,765 positive tests (54 new), 271 confirmed deaths (7 probable)
- Sussex County: 2,504 positive tests (27 new), 162 confirmed deaths (37 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 2,402 positive tests (24 new), 77 confirmed deaths (54 probable)
- Warren County: 2,435 positive tests (16 new), 160 confirmed deaths (13 probable)
- Cumberland County: 5,014 positive tests (15 new), 1656 confirmed deaths (8 probable)
- Salem County: 1,594 positive tests (15 new), 87 confirmed deaths (5 probable)
- Cape May County: 1,632 positive tests (8 new), 100 confirmed deaths (10 probable)
HOSPITALIZATIONS
The number of people being hospitalized rose slightly Friday night, after a two-day respite where hospitalizations decreased. The Friday night increase falls in line with the more than a month of steady increases prior to Wednesday.
There were 2,830 patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Friday night. That’s 34 more patients compared to Thursday. There were 2,902 people being hospitalized on Tuesday, the most since May 22.
Of those Friday evening patients, 560 were in critical or intensive care (one more than the night before), including 305 on ventilators (26 more). There were 245 coronavirus patients discharged from hospitals Friday, according to the state’s online dashboard.
Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 have more than tripled over the past month.
Officials say hospitals are now better equipped to treat patients than they were in the spring and are confident they will have enough capacity. But they warn the more cases rise, the more likely hospitalizations — and eventually deaths — will keep growing.
SCHOOL CASES
Although hundreds of school districts have announced coronavirus cases and dozens of New Jersey schools have temporarily shut down since the start of the school year, state health officials have said 66 schools have had confirmed COVID-19 outbreaks.
Murphy on Tuesday announced 10 new in-school outbreaks over the past week. There have now been 269 total cases of in-school transmission in those 66 schools since the start of the school year.
Those numbers do not include students or staff believed to have been infected outside school, or cases that can’t be confirmed as in-school outbreaks.
As all of New Jersey has turned from yellow to orange on the state’s COVID-19 activity map - indicating “high” levels of COVID-19 - all 21 counties should “consider implementing fully remote learning” in their schools, based on state health guidelines.
AGE BREAKDOWN
Broken down by age, those 30 to 49 years old make up the largest percentage of New Jersey residents who have caught the virus (31.6%), followed by those 50-64 (24.4%), 18-29 (18.8%), 65-79 (11.5%), 80 and older (6.6%), 5-17 (5.8%) and 0-4 (1.2%).
On average, the virus has been more deadly for older residents, especially those with pre-existing conditions. Nearly half the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents 80 and older (47.1%), followed by those 65-79 (32.2%), 50-64 (16%), 30-49 (4.2%), 18-29 (0.4%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (0%).
At least 7,281 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. That number has been rising again at a steeper rate in recent weeks.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Saturday morning, there were more than 61.8 million positive COVID-19 tests across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 1.44 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.
The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 13.1 million) and the most deaths (more than 264,800).
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Rodrigo Torrejon may be reached at rtorrejon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @rodrigotorrejon.