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New Jersey reported 1,566 more confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 20 more confirmed deaths on Saturday as the state’s daily average of cases continues to decline. But officials have warned the numbers could rise as people move indoors as the weather cools and the holiday season arrives.
The state’s seven-day average for new confirmed positive tests fell to 1,446, down 11% from a week ago and nearly 13% from a month ago.
The statewide transmission rate stood at 0.90 for the second day in a row, after three days at 0.88. But any transmission rate below 1 indicates that each infected person is transmitting the virus to less than one other person and the epidemic is no longer spreading.
As of 10 p.m. as of Friday, 920 people had been hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus in 69 of the state’s 71 hospitals, according to state data. Two hospitals did not report data.
The number of patients has mainly stabilized over the past month, with only slight increases and decreases.
130 patients were discharged in the 24 hours leading up to Friday evening. Among those hospitalized on Thursday, 224 were in intensive care, including 122 on ventilators.
The statewide positivity rate for tests done on October 2, the most recent day available, was 5.25%.
Gov. Phil Murphy said during his latest coronavirus briefing on Wednesday that the number of hospitalizations “was generally going in the right direction.”
The delta variant of the virus continues to dominate cases in New Jersey, with nearly all cases sampled in the four weeks ending September 18.
The drop in cases in New Jersey reflects a national trend. The United States on Friday recorded fewer than 100,000 new cases for the first time since early August. Nationwide cases have declined steadily since a recent spike of around 172,500 average positive tests on September 13.
State officials warned on Wednesday that there would likely be an increase in the total number of COVID-19 cases statewide as the weather cools, particularly after Thanksgiving.
“I think it’s inevitable that once we lead more of our lives indoors, this thing is going to kick in in some form or another,” Murphy said.
But the governor stressed the state would be helped by relatively high vaccination rates, and state health commissioner Judith Persichilli said she expects hospitals to be able to manage the increase in the number of patients.
More than 5.91 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey – a state of about 9.2 million people – were fully vaccinated on Friday. Murphy said more than 75% of eligible people in New Jersey have been fully vaccinated.
Almost 6.6 million people have received at least one dose and more than 225,000 people have received third doses or boosters.
All but four New Jersey counties continue to be listed as having “high” rates of coronavirus transmission, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Essex, Mercer, Somerset and Union counties have been downgraded to substantial transmission, but the CDC recommends that people in 21 counties wear masks for indoor public places, regardless of their immunization status.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Bulletin | Home page
New Jersey has now reported a total of 27,590 COVID-19-related deaths in just over 19 months – 24,793 confirmed and 2,797 considered probable, according to the state’s dashboard. This is the second highest number of coronavirus deaths per capita in the United States
The state has reported 1,016,546 confirmed cases in total out of the more than 15.66 million PCR tests performed since its first case was announced on March 4, 2020. The state has also reported 153,344 positive antigen tests. , which are considered probable cases.
At least 8,570 of the deaths from COVID-19 in the state have occurred among residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data. As of Friday, there were active outbreaks in 160 facilities, resulting in 693 current cases among residents and 587 among staff.
As of September 20, there have been 30,267 cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated people in New Jersey. Of these, only 629 were hospitalized and 158 died.
New Jersey school districts have so far reported at least 69 outbreaks at school, for a total of 379 cases as of Friday. Positive tests include 60 for educators and other school staff and 319 for students.
School outbreaks are defined as three or more cases that are determined by contact tracing to have been transmitted between staff or students at school. They do not include the total number of cases among staff and students.
As of Friday, more than 237.3 million positive cases of COVID-19 were reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 4.84 million people dying from the virus. The United States has reported the most cases (nearly 44.3 million) and deaths (over 712,000) than any other country.
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Karin Price Mueller can be contacted at [email protected].
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