N.J. reports 21 COVID deaths, 2,668 cases. Major vaccine expansion for teachers, essential workers announced. – NJ.com

New Jersey on Monday reported another 2,668 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 21 additional deaths as Gov. Phil Murphy announced teachers, as well as child-care and transportation workers, will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine March 15 and front-line essential employees including restaurant workers will become eligible two weeks later.

“Given the expectations of increased weekly shipments of vaccines as the month progresses, and especially as we head into April, we are confident in announcing this broadening of eligibilities now so that those who fall into these categories can know when they can step up to the plate,” Murphy said, noting that the groups total several hundred thousand people each.

Murphy announced the update at his latest COVID-19 briefing in Trenton on the same day the state allowed large indoor sports and entertainment venues to welcome back fans at 10% capacity and large outdoor venues with fixed seats to have spectators at 15% capacity.

There have been 2,039,427 coronavirus vaccine doses administered in New Jersey as of Monday morning, including 1.35 million first doses and 690,000 second doses.

That’s out of more than 2.5 million doses the state has received, according to a running tally by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state’s goal is to vaccinate 70% of its adult population — about 4.7 million people — within the next few months.

New Jersey is expected to get its first shipment of the one-dose coronavirus vaccine produced by New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson, which the federal government approved this past weekend. The state is slated to receive about 70,000 doses this week.

The Garden State’s seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases is now 2,841, up 5% from a week ago, and down 31% from a month ago.

Two days after dropping below 2,000 for the first time since November, the number of coronavirus patients at New Jersey’s hospitals increased slightly Sunday night to 1,865.

The latest statewide rate of transmission increased to 0.94, up from 0.91 the day before. Any rate below 1 means the outbreak is slowing.

The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted on Thursday, the most recent day available, was 6.44% based on 44,835 tests.

New Jersey has now reported 704,362 confirmed coronavirus cases out of more than 10.6 million PCR tests in nearly one year since the state reported its first case March 4, 2020. There have also been 88,134 positive antigen tests. Those cases are considered probable, and health officials have warned that positive antigen tests could overlap with the confirmed PCR tests because they are sometimes given in tandem.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

The state, which has 9 million people, has reported 23,273 residents have died from complications related to COVID-19 including 2,331 fatalities considered probable. That includes 1,589 confirmed coronavirus deaths reported in February.

New Jersey has identified 63 cases of the COVID-19 variant first found in the U.K.

VACCINE DOSES BY COUNTY

ATLANTIC COUNTY – 61,977 doses administered

BERGEN COUNTY – 232,962 doses administered

BURLINGTON COUNTY – 102,489 doses administered

CAMDEN COUNTY – 115,754 doses administered

CAPE MAY COUNTY – 29,408 doses administered

CUMBERLAND COUNTY – 27,162 doses administered

ESSEX COUNTY – 161,702 doses administered

GLOUCESTER COUNTY – 70,754 doses administered

HUDSON COUNTY – 93,755 doses administered

HUNTERDON COUNTY – 26,302 doses administered

MERCER COUNTY – 58,268 doses administered

MIDDLESEX COUNTY – 158,571 doses administered

MONMOUTH COUNTY – 149,350 doses administered

MORRIS COUNTY – 152,926 doses administered

OCEAN COUNTY – 122,415 doses administered

PASSAIC COUNTY – 92,078 doses administered

SALEM COUNTY – 12,818 doses administered

SOMERSET COUNTY – 77,651 doses administered

SUSSEX COUNTY – 30,559 doses administered

UNION COUNTY – 98,196 doses administered

WARREN COUNTY – 18,600 doses administered

UNKNOWN COUNTY – 87,765 doses administered

OUT OF STATE – 57,965 doses administered

HOSPITALIZATIONS

There were 1,865 patients hospitalized with confirmed (1,729) or suspected COVID-19 cases across 70 of New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Sunday night — eight more than the previous night, according to the state’s dashboard.

That included 387 in critical or intensive care (nine fewer than the previous night), with 226 on ventilators (four fewer).

There were also 178 COVID-19 patients discharged Sunday, while 203 patients were admitted.

Hospitalizations peaked at more than 8,000 patients during the first wave of the pandemic in April.

SCHOOL CASES

New Jersey has reported 152 in-school coronavirus outbreaks, which have resulted in 737 cases among students, teachers and school staff this academic year, according to the state’s dashboard.

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.

School outbreaks have been reported in all 21 counties, according to the state.

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 last summer.

There are about 1.4 million public school students and teachers across the state, though teaching methods amid the outbreak have varied, with some schools teaching in-person, some using a hybrid format and others remaining 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%), followed by those 50-64 (23.3%), 18-29 (19.5%), 65-79 (10.9%), 5-17 (8.4%), 80 and older (5%), and 0-4 (1.7%).

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 (47.25%), followed by those 65-79 (32.76%), 50-64 (15.58%), 30-49 (4.02%), 18-29 (0.37%), 5-17 (0%), and 0-4 (0.02%).

At least 7,906 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

There are currently active outbreaks at 342 facilities, resulting in 6,413 active cases among residents and 6,538 among staffers.

GLOBAL NUMBERS

As of early Monday afternoon, there have been more than 114 million positive COVID-19 tests across the globe, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 2.5 million people have died from coronavirus-related complications.

The U.S. has reported the most cases, at more than 28.6 million, and the most deaths, at more than 513,000.

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