Wherever you look, the coronavirus numbers in New Jersey are only going one way.
The week of Nov. 12-18 marked the third straight week that every county in New Jersey saw an increase in new coronavirus cases over the week prior.
It was just a couple months ago that adding five or six cases per 10,000 residents was enough to land a county at the top of the state. This week, no county had fewer than 13.8 new cases per 10,000 residents.
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On the whole, New Jersey added 29.3 cases per 10,000 residents. A figure that was once a mere fraction of the U.S. as a whole has nearly caught up. There were 33.5 cases per 10,000 residents nationally during the course of the week.
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The county with the most new cases this week was Passaic County at 45.5 new cases per 10,000. Camden, Union, Mercer and Essex rounded out the top five, but that’s not to say the other 16 counties don’t have their hands full.
Eleven counties saw an increase of 50% or more in total cases over the week prior. Cases in Salem County jumped by 127%, and Cape May County was just over 100% growth.
New Jersey, now fully in the midst of the epidemic’s second wave, reported 3,635 new cases on Friday while hospitalizations rose for a 21st straight day.
Gov. Phil Murphy and state health officials did give one glimmer of hope on Friday, though: about 130,000 doses of Pfizer’s new coronavirus vaccine could be on their way to the Garden State by January, with top priority going to health care workers and the most vulnerable.
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Nick Devlin is a reporter on the data & investigations team. He can be reached at ndevlin@njadvancemedia.com.