A little more than a week after announcing the number hit a four-month high, state officials said Monday that New Jersey’s rate of coronavirus transmission has fallen below the key benchmark that indicates the outbreak is once again declining.
The state also reported four more deaths attributed to COVID-19 — all of which occurred in previous months — and 258 new positive tests. Both are among the lowest daily numbers officials have announced in recent months.
The Garden State’s most recent transmission rate is just below 1, at 0.98, after spiking to 1.49 eight days ago — the highest mark in four months. The number dropped incrementally each day since then.
Any number above 1 means each newly infected person is spreading the virus to at least one other person, on average. Anything below 1 means the outbreak is shrinking.
The rate had been below 1 for weeks during the strictest parts of New Jersey’s coronavirus lockdowns but had fluctuated above and below 1 in July as the state took more reopening steps.
“We are, thankfully, down below 1,” Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday afternoon during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “This is because so many of you have redoubled your efforts as it relates to social distancing and wearing your masks, and from what we’ve done from a policy point, as well as enforcement to crack down on crowded indoor gatherings.”
The announcement comes one week after the rising rate prompted Murphy to lower limits on indoor gatherings in New Jersey to 25%, with a maximum of 25 people, except for weddings, funerals, and religious and political events.
New Jersey's coronavirus transmission rate over the last few months.
In addition Monday, officials said the state’s four newly reported deaths all occurred in previous months — April 21, May 19, July 23, and July 30 — and had only recently been confirmed.
New Jersey’s death toll from the virus is now 15,878, with 14,025 confirmed fatalities and 1,853 considered probable, in the slightly more than five months since the first case here was reported March 4. The state has reported 185,031 positive tests in that time.
The last time New Jersey reported fewer than five deaths was March 22, when the state’s total deaths stood at 20.
Monday marks the 32nd straight day New Jersey has reported fewer than 50 new deaths in one day and the 10th straight day it has reported fewer than 15. It also marks the 10th straight day the state has announced fewer than 500 new cases after seeing sudden upticks late last month.
The number of daily deaths and cases in New Jersey — an early coronavirus hotspot — remain well below their peaks in April, when it was routine for the state to announce hundreds of new fatalities and thousands of new positive tests a day.
The state’s positivity rate — the percentage of residents who test positive for the virus in one day — was 1.62% on Aug. 6, the date with the most recent available data.
“That’s a good number,” Murphy said.
Still, the governor urged residents to continue to wear masks and practice social distancing.
“Please don’t get complacent,” he said. “The virus is out there.”
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 545 patients being treated for COVID-19 or under investigation for it across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals Sunday night. That’s an increase of 62 patients from the night before.
Of those patients, 284 tested positive for the virus and 261 were under investigation and awaiting teat results.
Meanwhile, 83 were in critical or intensive care and 29 were on ventilators.
“For both ICU beds and ventilators, we are now at lows we haven’t seen since the earliest days of March,” Murphy said.
There were 35 coronavirus patients discharged from the state’s hospitals Sunday, according to the state’s tracking website.
New Jersey’s hospitalizations have declined steadily over the last few months after peaking at more than 8,000 in mid-April.
New Jersey hit a peak in hospitalizations, with more than 8,000 coronavirus patients, in mid-April.
INDOOR DINING UPDATE
New Jersey is still in Stage 2 of its plan to gradually lift coronavirus restrictions that Murphy ordered in March to fight the spread of COVID-19. Gyms, movie theaters, and indoor dining sections of bars and restaurants remain closed until further notice.
Even though the state’s numbers continue to improve, Murphy said Monday indoor dining remains too risky, citing a study of a COVID-19 breakout that happened at a restaurant in China in January.
“Allowing diners to sit maskless for an extended period of time in a restaurant where the air-conditioning unit could silently spread coronavirus is a risk we cannot yet take,” the governor said.
That’s even as the state’s economy continues to suffer during the pandemic. Nearly 1.5 million workers in the state have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March.
Murphy on Monday also threatened to shut down Jersey Shore bars that are not taking steps to require patrons to wear masks and socially distance while waiting on lines to enter outdoor dining areas. He cited an NJ Advance Media report from four crowded bars on Saturday night showing long, crowded lines.
“This is not a game,” Murphy said. “Standing around maskless in a crowd outside a bar is just as big a knucklehead move as standing around maskless inside one.”
COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS
- Atlantic County: 3,469 cases (7 new), 237 confirmed deaths (15 probable)
- Bergen County: 20,825 cases (24 new), 1,787 confirmed deaths (251 probable)
- Burlington County: 6,025 cases (18 new), 433 confirmed deaths (40 probable)
- Camden County: 8,580 cases (18 new), 524 confirmed deaths (56 probable)
- Cape May County: 834 cases (2 new), 82 confirmed deaths (5 probable)
- Cumberland County: 3,348 cases (10 new), 146 confirmed deaths (12 probable)
- Essex County: 19,747 cases (18 new), 1,872 confirmed deaths (239 probable)
- Gloucester County: 3,258 cases (10 new), 205 confirmed deaths (7 probable)
- Hudson County: 19,683 cases (13 new), 1,338 confirmed deaths (167 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 1,149 cases (1 new), 70 confirmed deaths (56 probable)
- Mercer County: 8,127 cases (8 new), 581 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Middlesex County: 17,932 cases (13 new), 1,199 confirmed deaths (204 probable)
- Monmouth County: 10,326 cases (24 new), 759 confirmed deaths (97 probable)
- Morris County: 7,261 cases (12 new), 681 confirmed deaths (148 probable)
- Ocean County: 10,603 cases (7 new), 951 confirmed deaths (67 probable)
- Passaic County: 17,665 cases (22 new), 1,094 confirmed deaths (148 probable)
- Salem County: 898 cases (3 new), 81 confirmed deaths (6 probable)
- Somerset County: 5,253 cases (8 new), 486 confirmed deaths (75 probable)
- Sussex County: 1,333 cases (3 new), 161 confirmed deaths (37 probable)
- Union County: 16,725 cases (30 new), 1,180 confirmed deaths (170 probable)
- Warren County: 1,345 cases (0 new), 158 confirmed deaths (14 probable)
There are another 645 positive cases that remain under investigation, with the patients’ home counties not confirmed.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
New Jersey, a densely populated state of 9 million residents, ranks second among U.S. states in total COVID-19 deaths and eighth in total cases.
About half of the state’s deaths — at least 6,966 — have been of residents or staff members at the state’s nursing homes and longterm care centers.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the state is cumulative and does not reflect the thousands of residents who have recovered. Nearly 33,000 New Jersey residents have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
There have now been more than 2.3 million COVID-19 tests administered in the state.
Meanwhile, Murphy is calling on travelers from Puerto Rico and 34 states that qualify as coronavirus hotspots to voluntarily self-quarantine for 14 days upon arriving in New Jersey.
As of early Monday afternoon, there have been nearly 20 million positive tests for COVID-19 across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 732,000 have died, while 12.1 million have recovered.
There have been more than 163,000 deaths in the United States, by far the most in the world.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.