N.J. reports 64 COVID deaths, 3,285 positive tests. More than 930K have received 1st vaccine dose. – NJ.com

New Jersey health officials on Friday reported another 3,285 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 64 additional deaths as more than 930,000 people have now received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine with more than 310,000 fully vaccinated.

The seven-day average for new confirmed positive cases is now 3,306, up 2% from a week ago, but down 39% from a month ago. New Jersey’s hospitals reported 2,565 coronavirus patients as of Thursday night, a decline of 34% since a recent peak in hospitalizations just before Christmas.

Gov. Phil Murphy is still quarantining after a member of his family tested positive Wednesday for COVID-19. Murphy, who had a negative test Wednesday, held his briefing online and announced a limited number of parents in New Jersey will be allowed to watch their children play indoor high school and youth sports again after months of being banned from the stands.

The new rules limit attendees to up to two parents or guardians per athlete for indoor games and matches. But the total spectators may not exceed 35% of the room’s capacity or 150 people total.

New Jersey has now lost 22,393 residents in the 11-month outbreak — 20,147 confirmed fatalities and 2,246 considered probable. The probable deaths, which are revised weekly, increased by 59 fatalities on Wednesday. The state has reported 803 confirmed deaths in the first 12 days of February. The death toll for January was 2,377 confirmed fatalities, the most in any month since May.

The total number of confirmed cases is now 660,067 out of more than 9.9 million PCR tests. There have also been 79,995 positive antigen tests, which the state recently began reporting publicly. Those cases are considered probable and health officials have warned the positive antigen tests could overlap with the confirmed PCR tests because they are sometimes given in tandem.

The rate of transmission reported Friday was 0.81. The transmission rate had fallen steadily since starting the week at 0.87 on Sunday. Any number below 1 indicates the outbreak is slowing.

The positivity rate for tests conducted on Monday, the most recent day available, was 7.19% based on 59,741 tests.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

There have been 1,244,224 vaccine doses administered in New Jersey so far, according to the state’s dashboard. Of those, 933,160 were the first of two doses people will receive.

That’s out of more than 1.7 million doses the state has received from the federal government, according to a running tally by the federal Centers for Disease Control.

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

  • Bergen County: 64,079 confirmed cases (375 new), 2,273 confirmed deaths (277 probable)
  • Ocean County: 48,396 confirmed cases (350 new), 1,642 confirmed deaths (111 probable)
  • Essex County: 63,394 confirmed cases (324 new), 2,337 confirmed deaths (261 probable)
  • Middlesex County: 63,618 confirmed cases (314 new), 1,801 confirmed deaths (222 probable)
  • Monmouth County: 47,849 confirmed cases (298 new), 1,226 confirmed deaths (114 probable)
  • Hudson County: 59,704 confirmed cases (294 new), 1,760 confirmed deaths (177 probable)
  • Passaic County: 49,672 confirmed cases (232 new), 1,473 confirmed deaths (167 probable)
  • Morris County: 29,809 confirmed cases (188 new), 872 confirmed deaths (222 probable)
  • Union County: 46,457 confirmed cases (162 new), 1,521 confirmed deaths (192 probable)
  • Atlantic County: 18,541 confirmed cases (95 new), 501 confirmed deaths (25 probable)
  • Camden County: 37,782 confirmed cases (94 new), 1,010 confirmed deaths (74 probable)
  • Mercer County: 24,878 confirmed cases (94 new), 807 confirmed deaths (39 probable)
  • Burlington County: 29,413 confirmed cases (88 new), 662 confirmed deaths (52 probable)
  • Somerset County: 17,416 confirmed cases (81 new), 666 confirmed deaths (99 probable)
  • Cumberland County: 11,453 confirmed cases (62 new), 312 confirmed deaths (20 probable)
  • Gloucester County: 20,061 confirmed cases (60 new), 493 confirmed deaths (24 probable)
  • Hunterdon County: 5,796 confirmed cases (40 new), 100 confirmed deaths (54 probable)
  • Sussex County: 7,400 confirmed cases (40 new), 206 confirmed deaths (61 probable)
  • Warren County: 5,882 confirmed cases (30 new), 191 confirmed deaths (18 probable)
  • Cape May County: 3,448 confirmed cases (23 new), 150 confirmed deaths (25 probable)
  • Salem County: 4,050 confirmed cases (6 new), 144 confirmed deaths (12 probable)

VACCINATIONS BY COUNTY

  • ATLANTIC COUNTY – 38,796 doses administered
  • BERGEN COUNTY – 139,337 doses administered
  • BURLINGTON COUNTY – 62,746 doses administered
  • CAMDEN COUNTY – 71,483 doses administered
  • CAPE MAY COUNTY – 18,246 doses administered
  • CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 18,106 doses administered
  • ESSEX COUNTY – 103,172 doses administered
  • GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 43,435 doses administered
  • HUDSON COUNTY – 57,404 doses administered
  • HUNTERDON COUNTY – 16,938 doses administered
  • MERCER COUNTY – 34,252 doses administered
  • MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 93,203 doses administered
  • MONMOUTH COUNTY – 93,884 doses administered
  • MORRIS COUNTY – 89,530 doses administered
  • OCEAN COUNTY – 74,491 doses administered
  • PASSAIC COUNTY – 58,083 doses administered
  • SALEM COUNTY – 8,118 doses administered
  • SOMERSET COUNTY – 47,885 doses administered
  • SUSSEX COUNTY – 19,081 doses administered
  • UNION COUNTY – 62,214 doses administered
  • WARREN COUNTY – 11,904 doses administered
  • UNKNOWN COUNTY – 40,489 doses administered
  • OUT OF STATE – 41,427 doses administered

HOSPITALIZATIONS

There were 2,565 patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Thursday night, 91 fewer than the previous night.

That included 525 in critical or intensive care (six more than the previous day), with 336 on ventilators (12 fewer).

There were also 367 COVID-19 patients discharged Thursday, according to the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

SCHOOL CASES

New Jersey officials reported five new in-school outbreaks of the coronavirus, bringing the total to 142 outbreaks and 671 cases linked among students, teachers and school staff, according to the latest numbers.

The outbreaks — defined as cases in which people were confirmed to have caught or transmitted the virus in the classroom or during academic activities — were reported in all 21 counties, according to the state’s COVID-19 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.

There are about 1.4 million students and teachers across the state, though teaching methods amid the outbreak have varied, some are in person, some are hybrid and others are all-remote.

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 (31.1%), followed by those 50-64 (23.5%), 18-29 (19.3%), 65-79 (11.1%), 5-17 (7.9%), 80 and older (5.3%), and 0-4 (1.6%).

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 (32.56%), 50-64 (15.52%), 30-49 (4.05%), 18-29 (0.36%), 5-17 (0%), and 0-4 (0.02%).

At least 7,713 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 435 facilities, resulting in 7,338 active cases among residents and 7,929 among staffers.

GLOBAL NUMBERS

As of Friday morning, there have been more than 107.8 million positive COVID-19 tests across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.37 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.

The U.S. has reported the most cases, at more than 27.3 million, and the most deaths, at more than 475,400.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.