N.J reports 3,392 new COVID cases, 8 deaths. 6 counties now under high transmission risk.
New Jersey on Friday reported another 3,392 confirmed COVID-19 cases and eight confirmed deaths as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention placed six additional counties under either “medium” or “high” transmission risk, leaving none of the state’s 21 counties remaining in low-risk territory.
Six counties are now considered high risk — Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Monmouth and Morris. Those in high-risk areas are recommended to wear a mask indoors in public and on public transportation and stay up to date on vaccinations, according to the CDC.
Fifteen counties are in the medium-risk category: Bergen, Cumberland, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean, Passaic, Salem, Somerset, Sussex, Union and Warren. Masks are not recommended in the medium- and low-risk regions.
New Jersey remains under medium risk (areas shaded in yellow) and high risk (areas shaded in orange) of community transmission, according to the latest CDC data.
The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Sunday — the most recent day with available data — was 18.10%. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers positivity rates above 10% to be “high.” However, the positivity rate is substantially lower than its peak of 40.83% on Jan. 1 during the height of omicron.
New Jersey’s rate of transmission remained was 1.04 on Friday. A transmission rate below 1 is an indication that the coronavirus outbreak is declining, as each new case is leading to less than one additional new case. When the transmission rate is 1, that means cases have leveled off at the current numbers and anything above 1 means it’s spreading.
There were 928 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported across 70 of the state’s 71 hospitals as of Thursday night. Despite the recent rise in cases, hospitalizations remain significantly lower than when they peaked at 6,089 on Jan. 10 during the omicron wave.
TOTAL NUMBERS
New Jersey has reported 2,148,410 total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the more than two years since the state reported its first known case March 4, 2020.
The Garden State has also recorded about 365,705 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases. And there are numerous cases that have likely never been counted, including at-home positive tests that are not included in the state’s numbers.
The state of 9.2 million residents has reported 34,099 COVID-19 deaths — 31,011 confirmed fatalities and 3,088 probable ones.
New Jersey has the seventh-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S. — behind Mississippi, Arizona, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee and Oklahoma — as of the latest data reported Monday. Last summer, the state had the most deaths per capita in the nation.
VACCINATION NUMBERS
More than 6.95 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey have received the initial course of vaccinations and more than 7.8 million have received a first dose since vaccinations began here on Dec. 15, 2020.
Over 4 million people in the state eligible for boosters have received one. That number may rise after the Food and Drug Administration approved booster shots for healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11. U.S. regulators authorized the booster for kids hoping an extra vaccine dose will enhance their protection as infections continue to spread.
LONG-TERM CARE NUMBERS
At least 9,331 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.
Of the active outbreaks at 345 facilities, there are 4,475 current cases among residents and 4,473 cases among staff, as of the latest data.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Friday, there have been more than 553 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus database, and more than 6.3 million people have died because of the virus.
The U.S. has reported the most COVID cases (more than 88 million) and deaths (at least 1,020,274) of any nation.
There have been more than 11.7 billion vaccine doses administered globally.
Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com.
