N.J reports 3 COVID deaths, 1,918 new cases. Murphy urges parents to get young kids vaccinated. – NJ.com

New Jersey on Sunday reported 1,918 confirmed COVID-19 cases and three new confirmed deaths as Gov. Phil Murphy encouraged parents to get their kids inoculated now that vaccines are approved for children as young as six months.

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for young children six months and older were approved Friday by the Food and Drug Administration and Saturday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccines use the same technology as those for adults, but are being offered at different dose sizes and number of shots for the youngest kids.

“With the authorization of the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months- 5 years, families will have the strongest protection against this virus,” reads a post Saturday from the governor’s Twitter account. “We encourage parents to schedule an appointment for their child.”

Pfizer vaccines were approved for children 6 months to 4 years old. The dose is one-tenth of the adult dose, and three shots are needed. Moderna requires two shots, each a quarter of its adult dose, given about four weeks apart for kids 6 months through 5 years old.

Vaccines were previously approved for children ages 5 and older.

The state’s seven-day average for confirmed cases was 2,198 on Sunday, down 15% from a week ago, and down 46% from a month ago.

The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted on Tuesday, the most recent day with available data, was 8%. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers positivity rates above 10% to be “high.”

The statewide rate of transmission for Sunday 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.

Cases, transmission rates and hospitalizations have been declining in recent weeks.

There were 723 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported across 70 of the state’s 71 hospitals as of Saturday 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.

Of those hospitalized, 78 were in intensive care and 31 were on ventilators. There were at least 175 people discharged in the 24-hour period ending Saturday, 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 2,104,431 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 351,928 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, which has 9.2 million residents, reported 33,929 COVID-19 deaths — 30,848 confirmed fatalities and 3,081 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 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 3.96 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 5, with 52.9% of schools reporting data, another 5,799 COVID-19 cases were reported among staff (2,099) and students (3,700) across New Jersey’s schools.

Since the start of the academic year, there have been 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 965 total in-school outbreaks, including 6,997 cases among students and staff. That includes eight new outbreaks in the latest weekly report ending June 5. The state reported 33 in-school outbreaks the previous week.

At least 9,158 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 363 facilities, resulting in 4,473 current cases among residents and 4,123 cases among staff, as of the latest data.

GLOBAL NUMBERS

As of Sunday, there have been more than 538 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 million) and deaths (at least 1,013,377) of any nation.

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

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Steven Rodas may be reached at srodas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @stevenrodasnj.