New Jersey Ends Year With Another Record Day of New COVID-19 Cases

The last day of 2021 saw another record number of Garden State residents test positive for COVID-19 and those currently hospitalized is the highest in over a year. 

On the state’s dashboard, it recorded 28,512 total new PCR cases and 6,105 probable cases as New Jersey continued to see the spread of the coronavirus driven by the Delta and Omicron variants. For the calendar year, the state’s total is 1,086,893 confirmed cases. 

As of Dec. 31, the cumulative number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New Jersey was 1,344,763 and 219,490 antigen tests. The overall number of individual cases for the state during the pandemic is 1,564,253. 

As for those that have passed, the state reported 37 confirmed deaths, bringing that total to 26,188. The state listed probable deaths at 2,849, bringing the overall total to 29,037. State officials noted 31 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours of reporting that have not yet been lab confirmed.  

In total, 9,995 residents of the Garden State died from COVID-19 in 2021.

Hospital High

The state’s reported a count of 3,864 patients hospitalized as all of the 71 hospitals in the Garden State filed reports Dec. 31—the highest number since 3,873 on Dec. 22, 2020. By region, there were 1,830 in the North, 1,165 in the Central and 869 in the South. Of those hospitalized, 589 are in intensive care units and 271 on ventilators. A total of 549 patients were discharged in the last 24 hour reporting period.

As for the rate of transmission reported Dec. 31, it increased to 1.79 from 1.77 the day before. The daily rate of infections from those tested Dec. 25 was 37.7%; by region, the rate was 41.3% in the North, 34.7% in the Central region and 32.8% in the South. 

Officials have continually cited transmission rate, hospitalizations, intensive care units, ventilators and positivity rate as health data they rely on to track how the coronavirus is being contained in New Jersey, guiding them in determining when restrictions have to be tightened or lifted.

Daily Data

For North Jersey counties on Dec. 31, Bergen had a total of 3,033 new confirmed cases and 554 new probable cases, Essex 3,992 new cases and 335 new probable case, Hudson 1,994 new cases and 216 new probable cases, Morris 1,457 new confirmed cases and 347 new probable cases, Passaic 2,117 new cases and 438 new probable cases, Sussex 394 new cases and 61 new probable cases, and Warren 329 new cases and 56 new probable cases.

Of the total confirmed deaths in North Jersey, Essex County has the most with 2,902, followed by Bergen at 2,760, Hudson with 2,222, Passaic at 1,864, Morris at 1,078, Sussex at 298, and Warren County at 253.

In regards to probable deaths reported Dec. 27, Bergen has 312, Essex has 310, Morris has 270, Hudson has 223, Passaic has 207, Sussex has 73 and Warren has 26.

Long-term Care Facilities

Health officials noted 393 long-term care facilities are currently reporting at least one case of COVID-19, accounting for a total of 5,610 of the cases, broken down between 2,006 residents and 3,604 staff. 

Cumulatively, 2,181 long-term care facilities have reported an outbreak infecting 35,815 residents and 26,622 staff, for a total of 62,437. 

The state’s official death total will now be reported as those that are lab confirmed, sits at 8,772 on Dec. 31. The facilities are reporting to the state 8,073 residents deaths and 145 staff deaths.

Vaccine Distribution

The number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in New Jersey totaled 13,008,634 in-state, plus an additional 509,038 administered out-of-state for a grand total of 13,517,672 as of Dec. 31. 

Of those who have received the vaccine, 6,211,968 received their second dose or the one jab Johnson & Johnson dose in state and another 212,767 out of state, bringing those fully vaccinated to 6,424,735.

State officials reported boosters and third shots of 1,182,089 for Pfizer and 1,004,191 for Moderna. A total of 47,661 New Jerseyans have received their Johnson & Johnson booster shot. Overall, 2,223,941 have received a booster or third shot.

In North Jersey, Bergen County has 682,225 residents fully vaccinated, Essex 548,449, Hudson 490,292, Morris 368,644, Passaic 333,954, Sussex 88,449, and Warren 57,603.

School Outbreaks

According to the state dashboard with 61% of all New Jersey schools reporting, new student cases totaled 7,716 and new staff cases 2,092 in the last week as of Dec. 19. Cumulatively, 34,331 cases have been reported— 44,532 students and 10,274 staffers.  

The vaccination rate for teachers in the Garden State is 84.6% overall. In North Jersey counties,  Bergen was tops at 89.9%, followed by Warren at 86.9%, Morris at 86.6%, Sussex at 85.8%,  Passaic at 85.2%, Essex at 81.6%, and Hudson at 76.7%, the lowest county in the state.

In regards to outbreaks related to in-school transmissions as of Dec. 29, the state has tracked 373 school outbreaks and 1,889 cases linked to those outbreaks since the 2021/2022 school year starting Aug. 7, up 37 outbreaks and 234 cases from the week previous. 

Outbreaks are defined as three or more laboratory confirmed COVID-19 cases among students or staff with onsets within a 14 day period, linked within the school setting, do not share a household, and were not identified as close contacts of each other in another setting during standard case investigation or contact tracing. 

For North Jersey in the new report, Bergen County has 40 confirmed outbreak with 205 cases, Morris County has 31 confirmed outbreaks with 190 cases, Passaic County has 19 confirmed outbreak with 170 cases, Sussex has 28 confirmed outbreak with 150 cases, Essex County has 19 confirmed outbreak with 110 cases, Hudson County has 17 confirmed outbreaks with 66 cases and Warren County has two confirmed outbreaks with 12 cases.