New Jersey on Tuesday reported another 34 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 6,840 confirmed cases, driving the state’s seven-day average for new positive tests above 6,000 for the first time during the pandemic, while statewide hospitalizations topped 2,000 patients for the first time in eight months.
The state’s seven-day average jumped to to 6,041, up 57% from a week ago and 269% from a month ago. The previous high was 5,587 on Jan. 15, when vaccine rollout was still in its early stages.
Tuesday marks the sixth straight day New Jersey has logged more than 6,000 new cases, extending a record stretch for the state during the pandemic.
It’s possible the state had similar stretches during the early days of the pandemic from March to May 2020, when a lack of testing meant the extent of the outbreak was likely undercounted. The highest day in that span was 4,427 on April 23, 2020.
Even so, the state had only six individual, not consecutive, days of more than 6,000 cases last winter.
Tuesday’s update comes a day after federal health officials said the omicron variant has overtaken delta as the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the U.S., accounting for 73% of new infections last week.
New Jersey has reported only a few omicron cases so far. But state officials said there are likely much more in the state because data is lagging.
Gov. Phil Murphy on Tuesday once again called for New Jerseyans to be careful as they celebrate the Christmas and New Year’s holidays over the next two weeks. Officials are asking people to get tested before attending gatherings.
“Please God, get vaccinated, get boosted, and be smart,” Murphy said after an unrelated event in Trenton. “I know wearing a mask stinks. I don’t blame you. I don’t like it either. But if you’re inside and you don’t know everybody else’s vaccination status, put one on.”
The governor also said state officials will do “everything we can” to keep having in-person classes in schools across New Jersey after the upcoming winter break, “obviously safely and responsibly.”
MORE: Murphy says N.J. will do ‘everything we can’ to keep schools in person as COVID cases surge
The hopeful note is that while hospitalizations are once again rising in the state, they are not increasing at the level they did during last winter. Officials say that’s because while vaccinated people can still catch the virus, it’s less likely they will develop severe infections.
Murphy said the omicron variant is proving to be “incredibly transmissible.”
“All the experts, their jaws have dropped at how fast this thing has exploded,” he said.
But he also noted it appears “less transmissible” from the nose to the lungs.
“That’s the great hope — that you can get sick, but this does not become deeply imbedded,” the governor said.”
Murphy has suggested in recent days that all options are “on the table” when it comes to reinstalling restrictions to combat the new surge, though he has said a statewide lockdown is unlikely.
There were 2,034 patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Monday night. That’s 134 more than the night before, despite 166 patients being discharged in the same 24-hour span. It’s also the largest number of patients since April 20, when there were 2,114 patients.
Of those hospitalized Monday, 374 patients were in intensive care (15 more than the previous night), with 186 of them on ventilators (five more).
Statewide COVI9-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled (up 161%) since last month. But the number of patients reported as of Sunday night is still 44% less than what it was Dec. 20, 2020, when 3,608 people were hospitalized in the early days of vaccine availability.
New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate increased to 1.23 Tuesday, after three days at 1.21. Any transmission rate above 1 indicates each infected person is passing the virus to at least one other person and the outbreak is expanding.
Asked Monday if the state is overreacting about the surge because hospitalizations aren’t as bad as they were last winter, Murphy said: “We’re trying like heck to meet the moment, and try not to either overshoot or undershoot.”
State Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said Monday her department has restarted a monitoring program it has used before during the pandemic. If a hospital reaches 90% capacity, the department will meet to discuss how many more patients they can accept and whether they need to be sent elsewhere.
Col. Patrick Callahan, the State Police superintendent, also said Monday he has been holding calls with local officials and emergency responders about preparing for possibly reopening field medical stations if needed.
Demand for testing has also surged this month, with more than 71,000 tests conducted Dec. 6 — the highest since Feb. 8.
But it’s not just an increase in testing that’s leading to more positive tests. The statewide positivity rate for tests administered Wednesday, the most recent day available, was 11.58%. That number is trending upward since the first week in November, when positivity was between 2.93% and 5.84%.
Officials and health experts say cases and hospitalizations are on the rise again for a number of reasons: winter is pushing more people inside, the holiday season is bringing gatherings, both the delta and omicron variants are spreading, unvaccinated residents continue getting sick, positive tests among children — including younger ones who aren’t eligible to be vaccinated — are increasing, and protection from the first round of vaccines is starting to wane.
Officials say while the majority of new cases in New Jersey are among unvaccinated residents, cases among fully vaccinated people are increasing, which shows protection from the first round of shots may be waning. They are encouraging more fully vaccinated people to get booster shots.
New Jersey does not break down the vaccine status of those who test positive, are hospitalized, or died because of the virus each day. Instead, the state provides monthly and weekly overviews.
As of the first week of December, New Jersey has reported a total of 68,913 breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated people this year, leading to 1,513 hospitalizations and 350 deaths, though those represent a small percentage of total cases. Officials say vaccinated people are less likely to contract the virus and much less likely to develop life-threatening cases of COVID-19.
From Nov. 29 to Dec. 5, the state reported 27,036 positive tests. Of those, 6,082 were from fully vaccinated people and those cases led to 24 hospitalizations (out of 1,198 total) and no deaths (out of 116 total).
More than 6.36 million (about 74%) of the 8.6 million eligible people who live, work or study in New Jersey have been fully vaccinated and more than 7.16 million (or 83%) have received a first dose since vaccines began here on Dec. 15, 2020.
More than 1.96 million — or 43% — of the 4.6 million people in New Jersey eligible for third doses or boosters have received one.
Everyone 16 and older in the U.S. who has received their second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines six months ago or longer is eligible to get a booster shot. Anyone 16 and older who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also eligible for a booster two months after their single shot.
All of New Jersey’s 21 counties are listed as having “high” rates of coronavirus transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency is recommending that all people in high transmission counties wear masks for indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status.
New Jersey, an early coronavirus hotspot, has now reported 28,762 deaths — 25,920 confirmed deaths and 2,842 probable deaths — in the more than 21 months since the pandemic began here.
The state has the third-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S., behind Mississippi and Alabama.
New Jersey has reported 1,177,197 total confirmed cases out of more than 16.36 million PCR tests conducted since the state’s first case was announced on March 4, 2020. The state has also reported 184,109 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
Positive tests among students and school staff members in New Jersey have risen sharply in recent weeks as officials say current cases are affecting young residents more than older residents. The state provides total student and staff cases separately from those deemed to be in-school transmission, which is narrowly defined as three or more cases linked through contact tracing.
In-school cases spiked the week of Dec. 12, with 6,947 cases reported between students and staff — an increase of 79% from two weeks prior.
There were 5,632 new student cases and 1,315 new staff cases that week, according to state data. That’s 5.25 cases per 1,000 students, and 6.81 cases her 1,000 staff, the second week in a row New Jersey set a new high for in-school cases.
The numbers don’t include all schools in New Jersey, with about 33% not reporting statistics.
At least 8,742 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data. There were active outbreaks at 229 facilities, resulting in 828 current cases among residents and 968 among staffers, as of the latest data on Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, there have been more than 275.8 million COVID-19 cases reported across the world, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 5.36 million people having died due to the virus. The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 51.1 million) and deaths (more than 808,200) of any nation.
There have been more than 8.76 billion vaccine doses administered globally.
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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @johnsb01.
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