N.J. reports 2,604 COVID cases, 14 deaths. Kids under 5 start getting vaccines. – NJ.com

New Jersey on Thursday reported 2,604 confirmed COVID-19 positive tests and 14 new confirmed deaths as children under the age of 5 have started receiving initial vaccine doses.

The state’s seven-day average for confirmed cases was 2,104 on Thursday, down 7% from a week ago, and down 45% from a month ago.

The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted on Saturday, the most recent day with available data, was 14.21%. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers positivity rates above 10% to be “high.”

The statewide rate of transmission for Tuesday was 0.82. A transmission rate below 1 is an indication that the outbreak is declining as each new case is leading to less than one additional new case.

There were 696 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported across the state’s 71 hospitals as of Wednesday night. Hospitalizations remain significantly lower than when they peaked at 6,089 on Jan. 10 during the omicron wave.

Of those hospitalized, 80 were in intensive care and 34 were on ventilators. There were at least 138 people discharged in the 24-hour period ending Wednesday, according to state data.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now lists seven New Jersey counties with “high” transmission rates — Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Monmouth, Morris and Salem.

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.

Eleven counties are in the medium risk category: Bergen, Essex, Gloucester, Hudson, Mercer, Middlesex, Ocean, Passaic, Somerset, Sussex and Union. Masks are not recommended in the medium and low risk regions.

Cumberland, Hunterdon and Warren are listed as low risk.

TOTAL NUMBERS

New Jersey has reported 2,112,475 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 354,957 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 33,980 COVID-19 deaths — 30,893 confirmed fatalities and 3,087 probable ones.

New Jersey has the eighth-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S. — behind Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas — as of the latest data reported Monday. Last summer, the state had the most deaths per capita in the country.

The latest numbers follow a major study that revealed even a mild case of COVID-19 can significantly affect the brain. Long COVID — the term commonly used to describe symptoms stemming from the virus long after a person no longer tests positive — has been found to affect between 10% and 30% of those who contract the infection, regardless of whether they have a mild or serious case.

In New Jersey, that would mean that roughly 600,000 of the more than 2 million who have tested positive for COVID since the onset of the pandemic either have or have had long COVID.

VACCINATION NUMBERS

More than 6.93 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.

More than 3.95 million people in the state eligible for boosters have received one. That number may rise after the FDA 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.

SCHOOL AND LONG-TERM CARE NUMBERS

For the week ending June 12, with 49.7% of schools reporting data, another 3,590 COVID-19 cases were reported among staff (1,047) and students (2,543) across New Jersey’s schools.

Since the start of the academic year, there have been more than 144,119 students and 43,680 school staff members who have contracted COVID-19 in New Jersey, though the state has never had more than two-thirds of the school districts reporting data in any week.

The state provides total student and staff cases separately from those deemed to be in-school transmission, which is narrowly defined as three or more cases linked through contact tracing.

New Jersey has reported 974 total in-school outbreaks, including 7,178 cases among students and staff. That includes nine new outbreaks in the latest weekly report ending June 20.

At least 9,195 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.

There were active outbreaks at 355 facilities, resulting in 4,489 current cases among residents and 4,230 cases among staff, as of the latest data.

GLOBAL NUMBERS

As of Thursday, there have been more than 541 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than 6.3 million people died due to the virus.

The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 86.6 million) and deaths (at least 1,014,835) of any nation.

There have been more than 11.6 billion vaccine doses administered globally.

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Deion Johnson may be reached at djohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @DeionRJohhnson