New Jersey reported five more coronavirus deaths and 378 more positive tests Sunday as the state’s rate of transmission decreased for the seventh straight day — though it remained just above the key benchmark that indicates the outbreak is expanding.
The Garden State’s death toll now stands at 15,874, with 14,021 confirmed and 1,853 probable fatalities from COVID-19, according to the latest numbers reported by Gov. Phil Murphy.
The state has reported 184,773 known coronavirus cases in the slightly more than five months since its first positive test was announced March 4.
Murphy announced the new numbers on Twitter. He did not hold a live press briefing Sunday.
The state did not specify when the newly reported deaths Sunday occurred.
The figures come the same day the same day the U.S. surpassed 5 million COVID-19 cases — about a quarter of all infections across the world since the virus emerged in China a little more than seven months ago.
Still, Sunday marks the 31st straight day New Jersey has reported fewer than 50 new deaths in one day and the ninth straight day it has reported fewer than 15. It also marks the ninth 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.
On Friday, Murphy said “most of the numbers this week have started to go in a direction that we need them to go” after he said a week earlier that “alarms” were ringing because of growing case numbers and a rising transmission rate.
TRANSMISSION RATE
The state’s most recent rate of transmission — a critical metric the state is using to determine how to further lift coronavirus restrictions — is 1.03, down from 1.15 reported on Friday and from a four-month high of 1.49 reported a week ago.
The goal is to keep the rate below 1. Anything above that marks means each new case is leading to more than one additional infection and the virus is spreading.
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. The rate has dropped incrementally each day this week.
The most recent spike led Murphy on Monday to lower limits on indoor gatherings in New Jersey to 25% with a maximum of 25 people, with exceptions for weddings, funerals, and religious and political events. Up to this point, there could be indoor gatherings of up to 25% of a building’s capacity or a maximum of 100 people.
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 483 patients being treated for COVID-19 or under investigation for it across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals Saturday night. That’s the second time since the state began publicly tracking hospitalizations that the patient count fell below 500.
Of those patients, 83 were in critical or intensive care and 31 were on ventilators.
There were 57 coronavirus patients discharged from the state’s hospitals Saturday, according to the state’s tracking website.
New Jersey’s hospitalizations have continued to decline steadily over the last few months after peaking at more than 8,000 in mid-April.
COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS
- Atlantic County: 3,463 cases (9 new), 237 confirmed deaths (15 probable)
- Bergen County: 20,794 cases (46 new), 1,787 confirmed deaths (251 probable)
- Burlington County: 6,007 cases (30 new), 433 confirmed deaths (40 probable)
- Camden County: 8,562 cases (39 new), 524 confirmed deaths (56 probable)
- Cape May County: 832 cases (8 new), 82 confirmed deaths (5 probable)
- Cumberland County: 3,338 cases (6 new), 146 confirmed deaths (12 probable)
- Essex County: 19,728 cases (14 new), 1,872 confirmed deaths (239 probable)
- Gloucester County: 3,248 cases (12 new), 205 confirmed deaths (7 probable)
- Hudson County: 19,671 cases (30 new), 1,337 confirmed deaths (167 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 1,149 cases (2 new), 70 confirmed deaths (56 probable)
- Mercer County: 8,119 cases (6 new), 580 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Middlesex County: 17,919 cases (36 new), 1,199 confirmed deaths (204 probable)
- Monmouth County: 10,302 cases (20 new), 759 confirmed deaths (97 probable)
- Morris County: 7,248 cases (14 new), 681 confirmed deaths (148 probable)
- Ocean County: 10,596 cases (12 new), 951 confirmed deaths (67 probable)
- Passaic County: 17,642 cases (19 new), 1,092 confirmed deaths (148 probable)
- Salem County: 894 cases (2 new), 81 confirmed deaths (6 probable)
- Somerset County: 5,245 cases (15 new), 486 confirmed deaths (75 probable)
- Sussex County: 1,330 cases (4 new), 161 confirmed deaths (37 probable)
- Union County: 16,695 cases (33 new), 1,180 confirmed deaths (170 probable)
- Warren County: 1,345 cases (2 new), 158 confirmed deaths (14 probable)
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 6,956 — have been of residents of 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.
New Jersey remains 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 restaurants remain closed until further notice.
Nearly 1.5 million workers in the state have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March.
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 Sunday afternoon, there have been more than 19.6 million positive tests for COVID-19 across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 727,000 have died, while nearly 12 million have recovered.
There have been more than 162,000 deaths in the United States, by far the most in the world.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.