New Jersey on Tuesday reported another 2,820 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 48 additional deaths, a day after Gov. Phil Murphy announced the state is set to significantly expand vaccine eligibility over the next month.
Pre-K through 12th grade teachers, as well as child-care and transportation workers, will become eligible March 15 and front-line essential employees, including restaurant workers and grocery store employees, will become eligible two weeks later, March 29.
There have been 2.1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in New Jersey as of Tuesday morning. That includes 1.4 million first doses and 721,000 second doses.
That’s out of more than 2.5 million doses the state has received, according to a running tally by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s goal is to vaccinate 70% of its adult population — about 4.7 million people — within the next few months.
The Garden State’s seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases is now 2,884, up 10% from a week ago but down 26% from a month ago.
The number of coronavirus patients at New Jersey’s hospitals increased slightly for the third straight day, growing to 1,915 as of Monday night. Still, that’s down 51% from a recent peak of 3,872 on Dec. 22.
The latest statewide rate of transmission increased to 0.97 from 0.94 the day before. Any rate below 1 means the outbreak is slowing, though the number has been creeping up in recent days.
New Jersey’s vaccination efforts are set to be bolstered this week with the arrival of the state’s first shipment of the one-dose coronavirus vaccine produced by New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson. The state is slated to receive about 73,000 doses in its first batch, with a similar amount arriving in subsequent weeks. That’s on top of the state’s weekly allotment of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Fellow New Jersey drugmaker Merck & Co. will help rival Johnson & Johnson produce the vaccine to expand supply more quickly, a federal official confirmed to the Associated Press on Tuesday.
Despite the new vaccine and increased eligibility, state officials stressed Monday that demand will continue to outpace supply in the coming weeks, so booking appointments may still be a challenge.
State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli also warned that cases and hospitalizations may “creep up a bit” in New Jersey in the coming days because of COVID-19 variants that have emerged. So far, only one variant has been confirmed in New Jersey — the B117 strain first discovered in the United Kingdom. The state has reported 63 cases of that strain.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
New Jersey has now reported 707,099 confirmed coronavirus cases out of 10.7 million PCR tests in nearly one year since the state reported its first case March 4, 2020. There have also been 88,686 positive antigen tests. Those cases are considered probable, and health officials have warned that positive antigen tests could overlap with the confirmed PCR tests because they are sometimes given in tandem.
The state of 9 million people has reported 23,321 residents have died from complications related to COVID-19, including 20,990 confirmed deaths and 2,331 fatalities considered probable.
COUNTY-BY-COUNTY NUMBERS (sorted by most new cases)
- Bergen County: 69,496 confirmed cases (347 new), 2,340 confirmed deaths (281 probable)
- Hudson County: 64,178 confirmed cases (316 new), 1,831 confirmed deaths (180 probable)
- Monmouth County: 52,051 confirmed cases (255 new), 1,285 confirmed deaths (122 probable)
- Middlesex County: 68,044 confirmed cases (224 new), 1,871 confirmed deaths (229 probable)
- Essex County: 67,907 confirmed cases (220 new), 2,414 confirmed deaths (269 probable)
- Passaic County: 52,362 confirmed cases (188 new), 1,525 confirmed deaths (173 probable)
- Morris County: 32,443 confirmed cases (185 new), 897 confirmed deaths (227 probable)
- Union County: 49,373 confirmed cases (181 new), 1,571 confirmed deaths (197 probable)
- Ocean County: 52,320 confirmed cases (180 new), 1,749 confirmed deaths (117 probable)
- Camden County: 39,656 confirmed cases (104 new), 1,070 confirmed deaths (84 probable)
- Burlington County: 31,082 confirmed cases (90 new), 692 confirmed deaths (54 probable)
- Mercer County: 26,325 confirmed cases (83 new), 838 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
- Somerset County: 18,831 confirmed cases (73 new), 683 confirmed deaths (102 probable)
- Atlantic County: 19,864 confirmed cases (69 new), 546 confirmed deaths (27 probable)
- Gloucester County: 21,196 confirmed cases (68 new), 516 confirmed deaths (28 probable)
- Sussex County: 8,031 confirmed cases (39 new), 209 confirmed deaths (64 probable)
- Cumberland County: 12,240 confirmed cases (37 new), 343 confirmed deaths (27 probable)
- Warren County: 6,410 confirmed cases (37 new), 198 confirmed deaths (19 probable)
- Hunterdon County: 6,359 confirmed cases (36 new), 105 confirmed deaths (54 probable)
- Salem County: 4,263 confirmed cases (13 new), 152 confirmed deaths (12 probable)
- Cape May County: 3,724 confirmed cases (6 new), 155 confirmed deaths (26 probable)
VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY
- ATLANTIC COUNTY – 69,009 doses administered
- BERGEN COUNTY – 240,521 doses administered
- BURLINGTON COUNTY – 110,865 doses administered
- CAMDEN COUNTY – 125,484 doses administered
- CAPE MAY COUNTY – 32,021 doses administered
- CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 30,399 doses administered
- ESSEX COUNTY – 172,533 doses administered
- GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 79,326 doses administered
- HUDSON COUNTY – 98,989 doses administered
- HUNTERDON COUNTY – 29,184 doses administered
- MERCER COUNTY – 69,917 doses administered
- MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 170,446 doses administered
- MONMOUTH COUNTY – 166,337 doses administered
- MORRIS COUNTY – 160,190 doses administered
- OCEAN COUNTY – 138,650 doses administered
- OUT OF STATE – 60,168 doses administered
- PASSAIC COUNTY – 95,874 doses administered
- SALEM COUNTY – 14,089 doses administered
- SOMERSET COUNTY – 88,046 doses administered
- SUSSEX COUNTY – 33,320 doses administered
- UNION COUNTY – 107,547 doses administered
- UNKNOWN COUNTY – 17,672 doses administered
- WARREN COUNTY – 21,568 doses administered
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 1,915 patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across 70 of New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Monday night — 14 more than the previous night, according to the state’s dashboard.
That included 395 in critical or intensive care (one more than the previous night), with 230 on ventilators (two more).
There were also 147 COVID-19 patients discharged Monday.
Hospitalizations peaked at more than 8,000 patients during the first wave of the pandemic in April.
SCHOOL CASES
New Jersey has reported 152 in-school coronavirus outbreaks, which have resulted in 737 cases among students, teachers and school staff this academic year, according to the state’s dashboard.
The state 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.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.
There are about 1.4 million public school students and teachers across the state, though teaching methods amid the outbreak have varied, with some schools teaching in-person, some using a hybrid format and others remaining all-remote.
Murphy said Monday that with teachers soon eligible to get the vaccine, officials are “fully expecting” schools across New Jersey to return for in-person learning “safely and responsibly” when the next school year starts in September, if not sooner.
“I would be very surprised and disappointed if we are not,” he said.
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%), followed by those 50-64 (23.3%), 18-29 (19.5%), 65-79 (10.9%), 5-17 (8.4%), 80 and older (5%), and 0-4 (1.7%).
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 (47.25%), followed by those 65-79 (32.76%), 50-64 (15.58%), 30-49 (4.02%), 18-29 (0.37%), 5-17 (0%), and 0-4 (0.02%).
At least 7,911 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.
There are currently active outbreaks at 337 facilities, resulting in 6,329 active cases among residents and 6,471 among staffers.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of early Tuesday afternoon, there have been more than 114.6 million positive COVID-19 tests across the globe, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.5 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.
The U.S. has reported the most cases, at more than 28.6 million, and the most deaths, at more than 515,000.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.