NJ reports 1,953 COVID cases, 9 new deaths as cases continue to rise, Murphy encourages booster injections

New Jersey on Saturday reported 1,953 more COVID-19 cases and nine confirmed deaths as the seven-day average for new positive tests rose for the 11th day in a row. Meanwhile, Gov. Phil Murphy urged adults across the state to get vaccinated a day after federal authorities expanded eligibility.

The state’s seven-day coronavirus case average rose to 1,645 on Saturday – up 31% from a week ago and 30% from a month ago.

The state’s transmission rate rose again to 1.2 on Saturday, from 1.17 on Friday. Any transmission rate greater than 1 indicates that the pandemic is spreading because each infected person transmits the virus to at least one other person. The state started the week with a transmission rate of 1.0.

“What is happening is exactly what we expected,” Murphy said on Friday. “We all live our lives on the inside and as we do, we all expected our numbers to go up.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that it was expanding eligibility for booster shots to all adults six months after receiving their second injection of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. Anyone 18 years and older who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was already eligible for a booster two months after their single injection.

Under the rules, any adult can choose any of the vaccines for their booster, regardless of which company vaccine they originally received.

“With the holidays approaching, we encourage everyone who has received their COVID-19 vaccination to receive a booster dose,” Murphy and State Department of Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said in a released statement. Saturday. “We also continue to encourage all those who have not yet been vaccinated to do so before vacation gatherings and travel to avoid putting themselves, their families and their communities at risk. It’s that simple. “

As of Friday evening, 801 patients were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected cases of coronavirus at 71 New Jersey hospitals, the latest tally available. There were 175 in intensive care, with 78 ventilated patients. At least 108 patients were discharged from hospital in the 24 hours leading up to Friday evening.

The state reported that the positivity rate for Monday, the most recent day available, was 4.08%.

New Jersey, one of the first epicenters of the pandemic, has now reported a total of 28,250 deaths from COVID-19 – 25,431 confirmed and 2,819 considered probable – in the more than 20 months since the start of the epidemic.

The state has the third highest number of coronavirus deaths per capita in the United States, behind Mississippi and Alabama.

New Jersey has reported 1,068,522 total confirmed cases out of more than 16 million PCR tests since its first case was announced on March 4, 2020. The state has also reported 161,844 positive antigen tests or tests. rapid, which are considered probable cases.

The delta variant of the virus, more contagious than previous variants, accounts for over 99% of all circulating cases.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Bulletin | Home page

More than 6.2 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey – a state of about 9.2 million people – have now been fully immunized. More than 7.84 million people in the state have received at least one dose and more than 1.06 million people have received third doses or boosters.

New Jersey reported a total of 47,559 cases among those fully vaccinated on Monday, resulting in 1,027 hospitalizations and 279 deaths. These figures represent a small percentage of the total number of cases.

From October 25 to 31, the state reported 10,303 positive tests. Of these, 2,003 were from fully vaccinated individuals and these cases resulted in eight hospitalizations (out of 774 in total) and no deaths (out of 113 in total).

As of Monday, at least 47,390 children aged 5 to 11 in New Jersey have received doses of the vaccine since federal authorities approved Pfizer injections for this age group, according to the state.

Murphy reiterated this week that getting more children vaccinated will help make it safe enough to remove the state’s school mask mandate, although he added that he did not have a target date.

There have been a total of 179 outbreaks in schools across New Jersey among students and staff this school year, leading to 1,026 cases, according to the latest figure released Wednesday. These figures are cumulative and do not reflect active infections. Only Burlington and Warren counties have not reported any outbreaks at school this year.

School outbreaks, which are reported weekly by the state, are defined as three or more cases that are determined by contact tracing to have been transmitted among staff or students at the school. They do not include the total number of cases among staff and students.

Eighteen of New Jersey’s 21 counties are listed as having “high” rates of coronavirus transmission on Saturday, while three are listed as “substantial” transmission – Union, Essex and Hudson counties – according to the CDC. The CDC recommends that all people in counties with high and significant transmission wear masks for indoor public places, regardless of immunization status.

At least 8,671 of the deaths from COVID-19 in the state have occurred among residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data, which is updates Monday to Friday. As of Friday, there were active outbreaks in 118 facilities, resulting in 612 current cases among residents and 520 among staff.

According to Johns Hopkins University, nearly 257 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, with more than 5.1 million people dying from the virus. The United States has reported the highest number of cases (over 47.6 million) and deaths (over 770,800) of any country.

More than 7.3 billion doses of vaccine have been administered worldwide.

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Josh Solomon can be reached at [email protected].