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There have been 49 fully vaccinated people in New Jersey who died of complications from the coronavirus through July 12, state health officials told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday.
More than half of those who died had at least one underlying medical condition, according to Donna Leusner, spokesperson for the state’s health ministry.
The death toll has increased since Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Monday that there had been 31 fully vaccinated people who died from COVID through June 28. The latest number includes cases up to July 12, the latest data available, Leusner said.
All of the deaths were people over 50, including 30 over 80. Thirteen of the deaths were people aged 65 to 79, and six were aged 50 to 64, Leusner said.
Of the 27 deaths of people with underlying conditions, 17 had cardiovascular disease, seven had diabetes and nine had cancer or other immunocompromised conditions, she said. Five suffered from chronic lung disease, three suffered from chronic kidney disease, one suffered from chronic liver disease and five others are listed as “other chronic diseases”. Some of the people who died had more than one underlying condition.
Data indicating whether the deceased were residents of nursing homes was not available.
While those most at risk of dying from COVID-19 are unvaccinated people with underlying conditions, fully vaccinated people with underlying conditions will remain at risk as long as a large portion of the population will not be vaccinated, said Perry Halkitis, dean of Rutgers. School of Public Health.
“The solution to our problems both in terms of stopping deaths and stopping the spread of disease depends on increasing the percentage of the population vaccinated,” Halkitis said. “But we have the flu shot in 59% of people. Why do we think we’re going to go higher than that with COVID-19? “
“But we have to go higher than that. It must be better, ”he added.
More than 5.18 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey have now been fully immunized, according to state data. There are more than 9 million people in the state, including children under the age of 12 who are not yet eligible for vaccination.
About 70% of the eligible population is vaccinated in New Jersey, ranking around 7th in the country, according to CDC data.
If more people do not get vaccinated, Halkitis said, he expects further restrictions in the coming months as “unvaccinated people put themselves and all of us at risk.”
The data shows that vaccinations are 99.998% effective in preventing hospitalizations and 99.9993% effective in preventing deaths among fully vaccinated residents, Gov. Phil Murphy said on Monday.
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Editor NJ Advance Media Brent Johnson contributed to this report.
Karin Price Mueller can be contacted at [email protected].
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