New Jersey on Friday reported another 2,407 confirmed COVID-19 cases and nine more confirmed deaths, as Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to announce soon that New Jersey will require teachers to be vaccinated for the coronavirus.
It’s the highest number of newly confirmed cases since April 24, when the state reported 2,465 positive tests.
The Garden State’s seven-day average for newly confirmed positive tests increased to 1,532 after it fell for three straight days. It’s 7% more than a week ago and 236% higher than this time last month.
The delta variant accounted for 96% of cases in New Jersey based on a sampling of positive tests over the last two weeks of July, according to state data.
New Jersey would be the third state behind California and Washington to enact such a vaccine mandate for teachers. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Murphy would allow teachers to opt out of getting vaccinated in exchange for regular testing, which is being done in California. Washington, meanwhile, is requiring teachers and staff to be fully vaccinated as a condition of employment.
All but one of New Jersey’s 21 counties are now listed as having “high” rates of coronavirus transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only Sussex County has “substantial” transmission. The CDC is recommending people in all 21 counties wear masks for indoor public settings regarding of vaccination rates.
There were 923 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or suspected cases across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals on Thursday night — 14 more than the previous night and the most since May 14 when there were 930 people hospitalized. There were 131 patients discharged.
Of those hospitalized, 195 were in intensive care (15 more than the night before), with 73 on ventilators (five fewer).
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Still, hospitalizations and deaths in New Jersey have not risen anywhere near the pandemic’s peaks. More than 3,800 patients were hospitalized during the second peak in December. And New Jersey’s numbers overall are not as bad as other states. That, officials say, is due at least in part to the state’s relatively high vaccination rate.
More than 5.45 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey have now been fully vaccinated in more than seven months since inoculations began, according to state data. About 4 million residents remain unvaccinated.
New Jersey’s statewide transmission rate was 1.27 for the fourth straight day. Any number over 1 indicates that each new case is leading to more than one additional case and shows the state’s outbreak is expanding.
The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Thursday, the most recent day available, was 5.04%.
An early coronavirus hotspot, New Jersey has now reported 26,739 total COVID-19 deaths in more than 17 months — 24,018 confirmed and 2,721 considered probable, according to the state dashboard. That’s the most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S.
In all, the state of 9.2 million residents has reported 934,069 total confirmed cases out of more than 14.93 million PCR tests since it announced its first case March 4, 2020. The state has also reported 136,629 positive antigen tests, which are considered probable cases.
Murphy has said “all options are on the table” to fight the upticks in New Jersey, though the governor has stopped short of instituting vaccine mandates for all government workers, as the federal government has done, or requiring people to show proof of vaccination to participate in indoor public activities, as New York City has done.
Murphy said last week that of New Jersey’s 4,332 positive tests between July 20-26, nearly 18% were so-called breakthrough cases of those who had been fully vaccinated, which is up from previous weeks.
As of Friday, there have been more than 210.1 million positive COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 4.4 million people having died due to the virus. The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 37.2 million) and deaths (more than 625,100) than any other nation.
Nearly 4.84 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally.
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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com.