New Jersey on Monday reported four COVID-19 deaths and 2,402 new confirmed positive tests as Pfizer announced plans to get its three-dose COVID vaccination series for children under 5 approved by regulators.
The state’s seven-day average for confirmed cases was 3,850, nearly unchanged from a week ago, when it was 3,856. The average is up 120% from a month ago.
The statewide rate of transmission for Monday was not immediately available, but it 1.25 on Sunday. When the transmission rate is over 1, that means each new case is leading to at least one additional case and the outbreak is expanding.
There were 832 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported at 70 of the state’s 71 hospitals as of Sunday night. One hospital did not report data. Hospitalizations still remain significantly lower than when they peaked at 6,089 on Jan. 10 during the Omicron wave.
There were at least 118 people discharged in that same 24-hour period ending Sunday, according to state data. Of those hospitalized, 119 were in intensive care and 38 were on ventilators.
The positivity rate for tests conducted on Wednesday, the most recent day with available data, was 12.31%.
The state on Monday also reported 527 probable cases from rapid antigen testing at medical sites.
The BA.2 strain of COVID-19 has been spreading in New Jersey for weeks, though at much lower rates than the Omicron surge in December and January. Officials have said the Omicron “stealth” sub-variant appears to spread more easily but generally does not cause more severe illness.
For the week ending April 30, BA.2 accounted for 91.4% of the positive tests sampled (slightly up from 89.4% the previous week), while the BA2.12.1 omicron subvariant accounted for 6% of positive tests sampled (down from 6.7% the previous week).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now lists 10 New Jersey counties with “high” transmission rates — Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Gloucester, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Salem and Sussex. 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.
Ten counties are in the medium risk category: Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Passaic, Somerset, Union and Warren. Cumberland County is at low risk. Masks are not recommended in the medium and low regions.
TOTAL NUMBERS
New Jersey has reported 2,027,112 total confirmed COVID-19 cases out of more than 17.7 million PCR tests conducted in the more than two years since the state reported its first known case March 4, 2020.
The Garden State has also recorded 332,420 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 33,619 COVID-19 deaths — 30,556 confirmed fatalities and 3,063 probable.
New Jersey has the seventh-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S. — behind Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia — as of the latest data reported Tuesday. Last summer, the state still 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.
VACCINATION NUMBERS
More than 6.91 million of the 8.46 million eligible 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 3.79 million people in the state eligible for boosters have received one. That number may rise after the FDA on Tuesday 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 once again creep upward.
On Monday, Pfizer announced plans to get its three-dose vaccination series for children under 5 years old FDA approved. The 18 million children under 5 are the only group in the U.S. not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccination.
While COVID-19 generally isn’t as dangerous to youngsters as to adults, some children do become severely ill or even die. The Food and Drug Administration has already begun evaluating data from rival Moderna, which hopes to begin offering two kid-sized shots by summer.
SCHOOL AND LONG-TERM CARE NUMBERS
For the week ending May 15, with about 56.4% of schools reporting data, another 11,135 COVID-19 cases were reported among staff (3,008) and students (8,127) across New Jersey’s schools.
Since the start of the academic year, there have been 125,550 students and 37,197 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 807 total in-school outbreaks, including 5,671 cases among students and staff. That includes 82 new outbreaks in the latest weekly report ending May 16. The state reported 72 in-school outbreaks the previous week.
At least 9,100 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 327 facilities, resulting in 3,592 current cases among residents and 3,259 cases among staff, as of the latest data.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
As of Monday, there have been more than 525 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, and more than 6.28 million people died due to the virus.
The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 83.2 million) and deaths (at least 1,002,178) of any nation.
There have been more than 11.44 billion vaccine doses administered globally.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Jackie Roman may be reached at jroman@njadvancemedia.com and on Twitter at @byJackieRoman.
