N.J. COVID death toll tops 20K. State reports 4,219 new cases, 108 deaths. – NJ.com

New Jersey on Tuesday reported another 4,219 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 108 additional COVID-19 deaths, bringing the state’s 10-month death toll to more than 20,000 confirmed and probable fatalities.

The state of 9 million residents has now lost 20,039 residents in the COVID-19 outbreak — 17,980 confirmed deaths and 2,059 considered probable. New Jersey has already announced 874 confirmed deaths this month, following 1,890 in December.

The statewide rate of transmission declined slightly for the first time in a week, to 1.08. A transmission rate over 1 indicates the outbreak is expanding.

Statewide hospitalizations for the virus rose for the third consecutive day as New Jersey deals with a post-holiday spike in cases during the pandemic’s second wave.

Gov. Phil Murphy announced the update via social media on the same day he issued his latest State of the State address in an empty theater in Trenton because of the pandemic.

Tuesday marked the first time in a week that New Jersey reported fewer than 5,000 new confirmed positive tests. As a result, the Garden State’s seven-day average for new cases decreased to 5,408, but that’s still up 18% from a week ago and 7% from a month ago, when the state was witnessing an increase in cases after Thanksgiving.

Murphy said Monday the jump in cases is largely because of people holding indoor gatherings over Christmas and New Year’s and warned that the state will continue to see impacts from that in the coming days.

The positivity rate for tests administered on Thursday, the most recent day available, was 11.32% out of 49,724 tests. The positivity rate has been at 10% or higher since Dec. 22.

New Jersey’s latest transmission rate of 1.08 is down from 1.09 a day earlier. The rate had been steadily rising since Jan. 4 before the decline Tuesday.

The number of patients in the state’s 71 hospitals with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases increased to 3,703 as of Monday night, up from 3,653 the day before. That’s much lower than the more than 8,000 COVID-19 patients who were hospitalized at the peak of the first wave in April, and the state has begun to see hospitalizations level off after a second-wave surge. But Murphy has warned that the state can’t afford hospitals to become overrun.

New has now reported 537,115 total confirmed cases out of more than 8 million tests administered since officials announced the state’s first case March 4. There have also been 57,634 positive rapid antigen tests, which the state began reporting publicly last week, though the state has cautioned that could overlap with the confirmed PCR tests.

VACCINATIONS

New Jersey has received 651,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines, according to figures tracked by the CDC. State officials reported that 233,555 doses have been administered — 212,069 first doses and 21,289 second doses, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

The state has faced criticism for rolling out inoculations too slowly. Officials stress there may be an undercounting of the number of vaccines given out because of reporting delays and New Jersey, like other states, is depending on the federal government for its supply.

“As our statewide vaccination program continues to grow, we will begin to see the light on the horizon get a little brighter,” Murphy said in Tuesday’s speech. “Be assured, we will get back to being able to gather and celebrate with our families and friends. We will be able to see all our children back in the schools they love. We will see our economy recover and flourish.”

Currently, only health care workers, people who live in congregant settings and police and fire professionals currently eligible to receive shots in New Jersey. Officials have said doses should be available for the general public by April or May.

New Jersey hopes to vaccinate 70% of its adult residents — about 4.7 million people — by the end of May.

In recent days, the state has opened the first two of its six planned “mega-sites” for mass vaccinations. There are also vaccines currently available at 119 locations throughout the state, including local health departments, ShopRite stores, and pharmacies.

More than 1 million New Jersyans have registered to get their vaccine when they become eligible as of Monday.

The county-by-county breakdown of where those doses were administered includes:

  • ATLANTIC: 7,296 doses administered
  • BERGEN: 25,856 doses administered
  • BURLINGTON: 11,303 doses administered
  • CAMDEN: 12,932 doses administered
  • CAPE MAY: 3,276 doses administered
  • CUMBERLAND: 3,185 doses administered
  • ESSEX: 19,693 doses administered
  • GLOUCESTER: 7,524 doses administered
  • HUDSON: 9,909 doses administered
  • HUNTERDON: 3,989 doses administered
  • MERCER: 5,948 doses administered
  • MIDDLESEX: 16,988 doses administered
  • MONMOUTH: 18,061 doses administered
  • MORRIS: 17,290 doses administered
  • OCEAN: 13,043 doses administered
  • PASSAIC: 10,842 doses administered
  • SALEM: 1,101 doses administered
  • SOMERSET: 9,484 doses administered
  • SUSSEX: 3,649 doses administered
  • UNION: 10,861 doses administered
  • WARREN: 2,408 doses administered
  • OUT OF STATE: 12,111 doses administered
  • UNKNOWN COUNTY: 6,806 doses administered

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

COUNTY-BY-COUNTY CASES (sorted by most new)

  • Bergen County: 52,110 confirmed cases (357 new), 2,117 confirmed deaths (266 probable)
  • Union County: 39,955 confirmed cases (356 new), 1,418 confirmed deaths (183 probable)
  • Middlesex County: 50,865 confirmed cases (354 new), 1,556 confirmed deaths (220 probable)
  • Burlington County: 24,387 confirmed cases (350 new), 604 confirmed deaths (51 probable)
  • Hudson County: 49,089 confirmed cases (346 new), 1,592 confirmed deaths (169 probable)
  • Essex County: 51,942 confirmed cases (325 new), 2,195 confirmed deaths (255 probable)
  • Monmouth County: 37,210 confirmed cases (289 new), 1,025 confirmed deaths (102 probable)
  • Ocean County: 37,334 confirmed cases (289 new), 1,401 confirmed deaths (83 probable)
  • Passaic County: 42,753 confirmed cases (207 new), 1,360 confirmed deaths (159 probable)
  • Morris County: 23,056 confirmed cases (200 new), 816 confirmed deaths (187 probable)
  • Camden County: 32,109 confirmed cases (184 new), 832 confirmed deaths (66 probable)
  • Mercer County: 20,785 confirmed cases (174 new), 726 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
  • Gloucester County: 16,330 confirmed cases (173 new), 418 confirmed deaths (20 probable)
  • Atlantic County: 14,152 confirmed cases (130 new), 382 confirmed deaths (17 probable)
  • Somerset County: 14,121 confirmed cases (123 new), 611 confirmed deaths (93 probable)
  • Cumberland County: 9,045 confirmed cases (101 new), 242 confirmed deaths (10 probable)
  • Sussex County: 5,516 confirmed cases (72 new), 183 confirmed deaths (46 probable)
  • Hunterdon County: 4,409 confirmed cases (65 new), 88 confirmed deaths (54 probable)
  • Warren County: 4,569 confirmed cases (33 new), 173 confirmed deaths (13 probable)
  • Salem County: 3,320 confirmed cases (29 new), 112 confirmed deaths (7 probable)
  • Cape May County: 2,702 confirmed cases (25 new), 129 confirmed deaths (19 probable)

HOSPITALIZATIONS

There 3,703 patients hospitalized in New Jersey with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases as of Monday night is 51 more than the previous night.

That included 658 in critical or intensive care (nine more than the previous night), with 440 on ventilators (two more).

There were 276 COVID-19 patients discharged Monday, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

SCHOOL CASES

There have been 111 in-school coronavirus outbreaks in New Jersey involving 557 students, teachers and staff since the school year began in late August, according to the state dashboard.

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. Though the numbers keep rising every week, Murphy has said the school outbreak statistics remain below what state officials were expecting when schools reopened for in-person classes.

New Jersey 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.

The number of New Jersey school districts with all-remote learning has increased as students return from winter break, Murphy said on Monday.

There are 339 districts that started 2021 remotely — an increase of 18 all-remote districts from Dec. 21. Only 77 school districts are returning with full in-person instruction (down from 82 on Dec. 21), and 348 are returning with a hybrid of in-person or remote instruction (down from 362).

Another 47 districts are using some combination of in-person, hybrid, or all-remote across multiple buildings — one more than Dec. 21.

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 (31.3%), followed by those 50-64 (23.8%), 18-29 (19.2%), 65-79 (11.2%), 80 and older (5.5%), 5-17 (7.3%) and 0-4 (1.5%).

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 (47.49%), followed by those 65-79 (32.29%), 50-64 (15.68%), 30-49 (4.14%), 18-29 (0.36%), 5-17 (0%) and 0-4 (.03%).

At least 7,606 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. That number has been rising again at a steeper rate in recent months, with deaths at the state’s nursing homes nearly tripling in December.

There are currently active outbreaks at 428 facilities, resulting in 6,510 active cases among residents and 7,034 among staffers.

GLOBAL NUMBERS

As of Tuesday morning, there were more than 91 million positive COVID-19 tests across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 1.95 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.

The U.S. has reported the most cases, at more than 22.6 million, and the most deaths, at more than 377,600.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.