Despite signs that the surge caused by the omicron variant is slowing, New Jersey’s COVID-19 count passed two milestones during the three-day weekend.
On Jan. 15, the number of total deaths passed 30,000 followed by the number of cases totaling more than 2 million on Jan. 17.
But numbers that had been considerably higher just last week—daily new cases, rate of transmission, hospitalizations—are beginning to decline slowly. However, lagging indicators such as deaths, ventilators in use and patients in intensive care units continue to rise.
“Hospitalization are down again…cases are down,” Gov. Phil Murphy said during a Jan. 16 press conference. “Those are all very good signs—still not out of the woods, but all very good signs.”
Daily Data
As of Jan. 17, the cumulative number of confirmed coronavirus cases in New Jersey was 1,731,512 with 8,267 total new PCR cases. There were 1,155 probable cases, bringing the cumulative total of antigen tests to 272,068. The total number of individual cases for the state is 2,003,580.
As for those that have passed, the state reported 32 confirmed deaths, bringing that total to 27,295. The state listed probable deaths at 2,869, bringing the overall total to 30,164. State officials noted 78 deaths occurred in the last 24 hours of reporting that have not yet been lab confirmed.
For North Jersey counties on Jan. 17, Bergen had a total of 830 new confirmed cases 144 new probable cases, Essex 748 new cases and 58 new probable case, Hudson 523 new cases and 69 new probable cases, Morris 441 new confirmed cases and 69 new probable cases, Passaic 422 new cases and 28 new probable cases, Sussex 155 new cases and five new probable cases, and Warren 123 new cases and 11 new probable cases.
Of the total confirmed deaths in North Jersey, Essex County has the most with 2,998, followed by Bergen at 2,864, Hudson with 2,293, Passaic at 1,950, Morris at 1,120, Sussex at 315, and Warren County at 270.
In regards to probable deaths reported Jan. 10, Bergen has 314, Essex has 310, Morris has 274, Hudson has 223, Passaic has 207, Sussex has 74 and Warren has 27.
Of the 6,145,961 fully vaccinated individuals studied as of Dec. 27, 2021, 128,172 New Jersey residents have tested positive for COVID who were fully vaccinated (2.1%). Of those 1,687 have been hospitalized and 448 COVID-related deaths—less than 1% in each category.
In the week of Dec. 20-26, 2021, breakthroughs accounted for 31.0% of all new cases (31,334 of 101,000), 0.2% of new hospilizations (4 of 2,640), and five of the 146 deaths.
State Testing
As for the rate of transmission reported Jan. 17, it declined to 1.02 from 1.09 the day before. It was as high as 1.92 earlier this month. The daily rate of infections, which had been peaked at 38% at the beginning of the month, from those tested Jan. 13 was 21.7%; by region, the rate was 19.8% in the North, 23.5% in the Central region and 24.0% in the South.
The state’s dashboard had a count of 5,307 patients hospitalized as all 71 hospitals in the Garden State filed reports Jan. 17. By region, there were 2,268 in the North, 1,733 in the Central and 1,306 in the South. Of those hospitalized, 896 are in intensive care units and 560 on ventilators. A total of 623 patients were discharged in the last 24 hour reporting period.
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.
Long-term Care Facilities
Health officials noted 550 long-term care facilities are currently reporting at least one case of COVID-19, accounting for a total of 19,924 of the cases, broken down between 8,566 residents and 11,358 staff.
Cumulatively, 2,340 long-term care facilities have reported an outbreak infecting 42,381 residents and 34,403 staff, for a total of 76,784.
The state’s official death total will now be reported as those that are lab confirmed, sits at 8,854 on Jan. 14. The facilities are reporting to the state 8,194 residents deaths and 147 staff deaths.
School Outbreaks
According to the state dashboard with just 60% of all New Jersey schools reporting, new student cases totaled 28,523 and new staff cases 8,646 in the last week as of Jan. 9. Cumulatively, 141,734 cases have been reported— 109,341 students and 32,393 staffers.
The vaccination rate for teachers in the Garden State is 83.9% overall. In North Jersey counties, Bergen was tops at 90.8%, followed by Warren at 90.3%, Morris at 86.8%, Sussex at 86.0%, Passaic at 85.1%, Essex at 83.1%, and Hudson at 69.8%, the lowest county in the state.
In regards to outbreaks related to in-school transmissions as of Jan. 11, the state has tracked 388 school outbreaks and 2,255 cases linked to those outbreaks since the 2021/2022 school year starting Aug. 7, up four outbreaks and 28 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 48 confirmed outbreaks with 264 cases, Morris County has 31 confirmed outbreaks with 190 cases, Passaic County has 19 confirmed outbreaks with 170 cases, Sussex has 29 confirmed outbreaks with 156 cases, Essex County has 22 confirmed outbreaks with 119 cases, Hudson County has 18 confirmed outbreaks with 89 cases and Warren County has two confirmed outbreaks with 12 cases.
Vaccine Distribution
The number of COVID-19 vaccines administered in New Jersey totaled 13,266,394 in-state, plus an additional 524,716 administered out-of-state for a grand total of 13,791,110 as of Jan. 17.
Of those who have received the vaccine, 6,305,172 received their second dose or the one jab Johnson & Johnson dose in state and another 212,725 out of state, bringing those fully vaccinated to 6,517,897. A total of 75% of those eligible are fully vaccinated in New Jersey and 88% have received at least one dose.
State officials reported boosters and third shots of 1,373,625 for Pfizer and 1,149,544 for Moderna. A total of 54,122 New Jerseyans have received their Johnson & Johnson booster shot. Overall, 2,577,291 have received a booster or third shot. Overall, 46% of those eligible have received their booster.
In North Jersey, Bergen County has 692,822 residents fully vaccinated, Essex 557,803, Hudson 499,363, Morris 373,550, Passaic 339,039, Sussex 89,643, and Warren 58,247.
