New Jersey health officials on Monday reported another 3,694 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 21 additional deaths as total vaccinations in the state surpassed 565,000.
The seven-day average for new confirmed positive test is 4,365, down 15% from a week ago, and down 5% from a month ago.
“We are averaging approximately 25,000 vaccinations per day,” Gov. Phil Murphy announced the update at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. He noted that vaccine supplies from the federal government remains limited. “We know there is far more demand for vaccines.”
New Jersey launched a hotline on Monday morning to schedule vaccinations for those who are eligible – 855-568-0545. More than 58,000 calls were received by noon, health officials said.
“Right now very limited appointments are available,” said Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli.
Statewide hospitalizations for confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases increased to 3,238 as of Sunday night, but that’s still down 16% from a recent peak on Dec. 22.
The statewide rate of transmission decreased to 0.94, from 0.97. Any number above 1 means the outbreak is growing.
The positivity rate for tests on Thursday, the most recent day available, was 9.62% for 54,987 tests.
Health officials announced Friday that New Jersey has recorded its first two cases of the highly contagious COVID-19 variant first identified in the U.K.
New Jersey has now reported 598,660 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the nearly 11 months since its first positive test March 4. Another 68,291 cases from antibody tests have been reported, though those are considered probable and may overlap with the confirmed tests.
The state of 9 million residents has reported 20,972 deaths related to the virus in that time — 18,851 confirmed and 21 considered probable fatalities. New Jersey has reported 1,869 deaths in January.
Deaths from the coronavirus in New Jersey surpassed what is typically recorded for heart disease and cancer, the two leading killers year after year.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
VACCINATIONS
There have been 565,401 coronavirus vaccine doses administered in New Jersey so far, according to the state’s dashboard. Of those, 492,260 were the first of two doses people will receive.
That’s out of nearly 1 million doses the state has received from the federal government, according to a running tally by the federal Centers for Disease Control.
All six of the state’s vaccine mega-sites have opened.
New Jersey has faced criticism for having a slower rollout than dozens of other states as it continues to deal with a second wave of the pandemic, according to data from the CDC.
Officials stress that the state is depending on the federal government for its supply and is receiving only 100,000 doses a week, though New Jersey has the capacity for 470,000 a day.
VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY:
- ATLANTIC COUNTY – 17,581 doses
- BERGEN COUNTY – 62,161 doses
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 28,387 doses
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 33,107 doses
- CAPE MAY COUNTY – 8,254 doses
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 8,444 doses
- ESSEX COUNTY – 44,887 doses
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 20,255 doses
- HUDSON COUNTY – 25,939 doses
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 8,575 doses
- MERCER COUNTY – 14,046 doses
- MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 41,798 doses
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 42,718 doses
- MORRIS COUNTY – 39,910 doses
- OCEAN COUNTY – 33,855 doses
- PASSAIC COUNTY – 26,420 doses
- SALEM COUNTY – 3,070 doses
- SOMERSET COUNTY – 22,768 doses
- SUSSEX COUNTY – 9,059 doses
- UNION COUNTY – 27,318 doses
- WARREN COUNTY – 5,612 doses
- OUT OF STATE – 23,169 doses
- UNKNOWN COUNTY – 18,068 doses
COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS (sorted by most new cases)
- Middlesex County: 57,137 confirmed cases (414 new), 1,651 confirmed deaths (217 probable)
- Monmouth County: 42,611 confirmed cases (350 new), 1,107 confirmed deaths (104 probable)
- Hudson County: 54,604 confirmed cases (343 new), 1,659 confirmed deaths (172 probable)
- Ocean County: 42,613 confirmed cases (323 new), 1,513 confirmed deaths (90 probable)
- Bergen County: 57,844 confirmed cases (309 new), 2,167 confirmed deaths (268 probable)
- Essex County: 57,474 confirmed cases (309 new), 2,247 confirmed deaths (260 probable)
- Camden County: 35,300 confirmed cases (205 new), 911 confirmed deaths (67 probable)
- Union County: 43,358 confirmed cases (196 new), 1,457 confirmed deaths (189 probable)
- Morris County: 26,200 confirmed cases (193 new), 833 confirmed deaths (202 probable)
- Passaic County: 45,855 confirmed cases (174 new), 1,407 confirmed deaths (160 probable)
- Burlington County: 26,987 confirmed cases (163 new), 628 confirmed deaths (51 probable)
- Atlantic County: 16,438 confirmed cases (128 new), 427 confirmed deaths (23 probable)
- Mercer County: 22,889 confirmed cases (114 new), 751 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Gloucester County: 18,328 confirmed cases (101 new), 458 confirmed deaths (22 probable)
- Somerset County: 15,719 confirmed cases (85 new), 631 confirmed deaths (93 probable)
- Sussex County: 6,574 confirmed cases (73 new), 198 confirmed deaths (53 probable)
- Cumberland County: 10,321 confirmed cases (72 new), 274 confirmed deaths (13 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 5,117 confirmed cases (42 new), 92 confirmed deaths (54 probable)
- Warren County: 5,219 confirmed cases (40 new), 179 confirmed deaths (15 probable)
- Salem County: 3,746 confirmed cases (20 new), 122 confirmed deaths (9 probable)
- Cape May County: 3,082 confirmed cases (18 new), 139 confirmed deaths (20 probable)
HOSPITALIZATIONS
The 3,238 patients hospitalized with confirmed (3,017) or suspected (221) COVID-19 cases across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Sunday night were 17 more than the previous night.
That included 596 in critical or intensive care (five fewer than the previous night), with 390 on ventilators (nine more).
There were also 240 COVID-19 patients discharged Sunday, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.
The governor has said any hospitalizations over 5,000 patients would likely trigger new rounds of restrictions. But the number of people being hospitalized has mostly ticked down slowly in recent days after hitting a more than seven-month high of 3,873 people on Dec. 22.
SCHOOL CASES
At least 597 students and staff in 121 school districts in New Jersey have caught COVID-19 through in-school outbreaks, according to the latest update from state health officials.
That’s an increase of 10 districts and 40 cases from the previous weekly report. There are now confirmed in-school outbreaks in all 21 counties, though the state does not identify the individual school districts.
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. Though the numbers keep rising every week, Murphy has said the school outbreak statistics remain below what state officials were expecting when schools reopened for in-person classes.
New Jersey defines school outbreaks as cases where contact tracers determined two or more students or school staff caught or transmitted COVID-19 in the classroom or during academic activities at school.
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 (31.2%), followed by those 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 has been more deadly for older residents, especially those with preexisting conditions. Nearly half the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been 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 7,698 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 months, with deaths at the state’s nursing homes nearly tripling in December.
There are currently active outbreaks at 427 facilities, resulting in 6,994 active cases among residents and 7,675 among staffers.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Monday afternoon, there have been more than 99.3 million positive COVID-19 tests across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.13 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.
The U.S. has reported the most cases, at more than 25.1 million, and the most deaths, at more than 419,000.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.