New Jersey on Friday reported 31 more deaths attributed to the coronavirus and 367 more positive tests, while hospitalizations dropped and the state’s transmission rate — a key figure in determining future re-openings — dipped below 1 for the first time in several days, to 0.98.
The Garden State has now reported 15,479 deaths related to COVID-19 — 13,532 lab-confirmed and 1,947 probable — with 174,628 known cases in the little more than four months since the state’s first case was announced March 4.
The daily positivity rate — the percentage of tests the come back positive in a single day — was 2.23% on Monday, the date with the most recent data available.
Officials have said the transmission rate and positivity rate are the two most important figures to measure how the virus is currently spreading across the state, helping determine when restrictions can be lifted.
“And feeding into both of these metrics are the results of the coronavirus tests being recorded every day,” Gov. Phil Murphy said at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “The more testing, the more precise we can get these numbers.”
By comparison, the state reported 28 new deaths and 354 new cases on Thursday.
The new figures come a day after there were more than 63,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in the U.S. — a new single-day high — as numerous states continue to see surges.
New Jersey, meanwhile, has gone from a coronavirus hotspot to seeing its number of new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations drop dramatically over the last two months after lengthy lockdown orders. Its figures have remained stable in recent weeks.
“In comparison to our peer states, we are starting to see some better news,” Murphy said.
“We know that keeping people out of the hospital entirely starts with social distancing, wearing a face mask or covering, and with rigorous testing and contact tracing,” the governor added. “So keep it up.”
Still, officials had recently sounded the alarm about the Garden State’s transmission rate, which leapt back over the critical benchmark of 1 last weekend. That means, on average, every newly infected resident was passing COVID-19 to at least one other person. Murphy said that was due in part to New Jersey gradually lifting restrictions and travelers bringing cases from other states
Officials said Friday the rate has decreased from 1.04 to 0.98. And the rate is still far below where it was in March, when it rose above 5.
HOSPITAL NUMBERS
There were 904 patients with the coronavirus or under investigation for it across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Thursday night. That’s down from 963 patients from Wednesday.
Of those hospitalized Thursday, 162 were in intensive or critical care (down 8 from Wednesday) and 94 were on ventilators (down 10 from Wednesday).
“For the first time in many weeks, fewer than 100 ventilators were in use,” Murphy said. ”This is definitely a milestone for us.”
There were 76 coronavirus patients discharged across all 71 hospitals Wednesday, according to the state’s coronavirus tracking website.
LONGTERM CARE NUMBERS
About 43% of New Jersey’s COVID-19 deaths have been either residents or staff members of nursing homes and other longterm care facilities.
There have now been 36,839 cases across 557 of those facilities, according to the state’s tracking website. That includes 24,366 residents and 12,473 staff members.
There have been 6,662 lab-confirmed deaths in longterm care facilities. That number rises to 6,723 when you include deaths suspected to be related to COVID-19 — 6,604 residents and 119 staff members.
NUMBERS BY COUNTY
Here are the latest county-by-county breakdowns of confirmed cases and fatalities as of early Friday, according to the state’s tracking website:
- Bergen County: 19,827 cases, with 1,751 confirmed deaths and 272 probable deaths
- Hudson County: 19,056 cases, with 1,302 confirmed deaths and 179 probable deaths
- Essex County: 18,954 cases, with 1,812 confirmed deaths and 249 probable deaths
- Passaic County: 17,030 cases, with 1,060 confirmed deaths and 158 probable deaths
- Middlesex County: 17,005 cases, with 1,160 confirmed deaths and 206 probable deaths
- Union County: 16,460 cases, with 1,157 confirmed deaths and 184 probable deaths
- Ocean County: 9,781 cases, with 922 confirmed deaths and 73 probable deaths
- Monmouth County: 9,404 cases, with 734 confirmed deaths and 98 probable deaths
- Mercer County: 7,773 cases, with 553 confirmed deaths and 44 probable deaths
- Camden County: 7,631 cases, with 489 confirmed deaths and 52 probable deaths
- Morris County: 6,875 cases, with 664 confirmed deaths and 154 probable deaths
- Burlington County: 5,332 cases, with 406 confirmed deaths and 41 probable deaths
- Somerset County: 4,974 cases, with 463 confirmed deaths and 86 probable deaths
- Cumberland County: 3,043 cases, with 136 confirmed deaths and 13 probable deaths
- Atlantic County: 2,987 cases, with 214 confirmed deaths and 15 probable deaths
- Gloucester County: 2,712 cases, with 186 confirmed deaths and 7 probable deaths
- Warren County: 1,262 cases, with 153 confirmed deaths and 14 probable deaths
- Sussex County: 1,221 cases, with 157 confirmed deaths and 37 probable deaths
- Hunterdon County: 1,096 cases, with 69 confirmed deaths and 56 probable deaths
- Salem County: 812 cases, with 72 confirmed deaths and 5 probable deaths
- Cape May County: 726 cases, with 72 confirmed deaths and 4 probable deaths
There are another 667 positive cases that remain under investigation, with the patients’ home counties not confirmed.
New Jersey, a densely populated state of 9 million residents, still ranks second among U.S. states in total COVID-19 deaths, but it is now fifth in total cases.
There have now been more than 1.6 million tests conducted in New Jersey since the start of the outbreak.
Murphy said Friday the surge in other states has put a strain on New Jersey’s testing supplies and caused some results to lag. But he said the state still has enough capacity right now.
“Our capacity is outstripping demand,” Murphy said.
While the transmission rate had been rising in recent days, Murphy has said he’s pausing more reopening steps. And he has ordered people in the state must now wear masks outdoors in public when they can’t practice social distancing.
In addition, New Jersey is calling for travelers from 19 states to voluntarily self-quarantine when they arrive, including residents returning home.
“We will responsibly deal with the public health as best we can,” Murphy said Friday.
More than 1.3 million Garden State residents have filed for unemployment benefits since social distancing and business closings started in mid-March, according to new numbers released Thursday.
Also Friday, Murphy and his fellow Democrats who lead the state Legislature announced they’ve agreed to a plan that would allow the state government to borrow up to nearly $10 billion to help make up massive losses in tax revenue because of the pandemic. Republicans immediately vowed a lawsuit to stop it.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
The total number of coronavirus cases in New Jersey is cumulative and does not reflect the thousands of residents who have recovered. More than 30,900 residents in the state have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Officials say increases in new deaths and positive tests may produce total figures that don’t match the previous day’s numbers because the state is constantly investigating and re-evaluating cases.
Officials also stress that not all new deaths reported have occurred in the last 24 hours. Some that happened earlier are now being verified, they said.
As of early Friday afternoon, more than 12.3 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 across the globe, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 550,000 have died, while more than 6.7 million have recovered.
There have been more than 133,500 deaths in the United States.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.
Michael Sol Warren may be reached at mwarren@njadvancemedia.com.