N.J. reports 8 COVID deaths, 3,387 cases. FDA limits the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. – NJ.com

New Jersey on Friday reported eight COVID-19 deaths and 3,387 new confirmed positive tests as the FDA puts a stop to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in fear of possible blood clots.

U.S. regulators on Thursday strictly limited who can receive Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine due to a rare but serious risk of blood clots.

FDA officials said in a statement that they decided to restrict J&J’s vaccine after taking another look at data on the risk of life-threatening blood clots within two weeks of vaccination.

The state’s seven-day average for confirmed cases increased to 2,480 on Friday, up 20% from a week ago, and up 133% from a month ago. That is the ninth day in a row the seven-day average has reached over 2000.

Hospitalizations, which typically lag about two weeks behind case trends, have also been on the rise in the last week.

There were 590 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across 69 of the state’s 71 hospitals as of Thursday night. Two hospitals 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 131 people discharged in that same 24-hour period ending Thursday night, according to state data. Of those hospitalized, 72 were in intensive care and 30 were on ventilators (two fewer than the night before).

New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 1.2 on Thursday. 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.

The positivity rate for tests conducted on Saturday, the most recent day with available data, was 13.41%.

The state on Friday also reported 1,018 probable cases from rapid antigen testing at medical sites.

After months of all of New Jersey’s 21 counties being listed as having “low” transmission rates, eight counties are now at “medium,” according to the updated guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Based on community levels determined April 28, Atlantic, Bergen, Cape May, Essex, Somerset, Middlesex, Mercer and Morris counties now have “medium” transmission levels Healthy people in the low and medium areas are no longer recommended to wear masks.

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” subvariant appears to spread more easily but generally does not cause more severe illness.

For the week ending April 16, BA.2 accounted for 97.2% of the positive tests sampled (up from 88.9% the previous week), while the omicron variant accounted for 2% of positive tests sampled.

TOTAL NUMBERS

New Jersey has reported 1,964,833 total confirmed COVID-19 cases out of more than 17.6 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 316,822 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 33,482 COVID-19 deaths in that time — 30,436 confirmed fatalities and 3,046 probable.

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

The latest numbers follow a major study that reveals 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 6.86 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 7.78 million have received a first dose since vaccinations began here on Dec. 15, 2020.

More than 3.5 million people in the state eligible for boosters have received one.

SCHOOL AND LONGTERM CARE NUMBERS

For the week ending April 24, with about 58% of schools reporting data, another 3,212 COVID-19 cases were reported among staff (983) and students (2,229) across New Jersey’s schools.

Since the start of the academic year, there have been 109,723 students and 31,356 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 653 total in-school outbreaks, including 4,538 cases among students and staff. That includes 20 new outbreaks from data reported last week.

At least 9,041 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 226 facilities, resulting in 2,559 current cases among residents and 2,511 cases among staff, as of the latest data.

GLOBAL NUMBERS

As of Friday, there have been more than 516 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 6.2 million people having died due to the virus.

The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 81 million) and deaths (at least 996,986) of any nation.

There have been more than 11 billion vaccine doses administered globally.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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