New Jersey on Wednesday reported an additional 1,847 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 11 new confirmed deaths as the seven-day average for positive tests continues to fall.
The seven-day average for confirmed positive tests fell to 2,012, down 15% from a week ago and down 26% from a month ago.
As cases fell, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday dropped its recommendation that people quarantine if they come into close contact with an infected person, saying people should be infected after more than eight feet no longer have to stay 6 feet apart. a year and a half after the recommendation of this measure.
The CDC also issued recommendations for schools to routinely test students and staff.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy also signed an executive order Monday ending requirements that teachers, school employees, childcare workers, state employees and government contractors who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 be regularly screened for the virus need to be tested.
Rutgers University announced late Tuesday that it will continue to require its students and staff to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear masks in indoor classrooms and libraries for the upcoming semester.
New Jersey’s transmission rate was 0.90 on Wednesday. The price started the month at 1.01.
A transmission rate below 1 indicates that each new case results in less than one additional case. If the transmission rate is 1, it means that the cases have leveled off at the current numbers. Anything above 1 means the breakout is expanding.
As of Wednesday, 1,070 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases had been reported at 70 of the state’s 71 hospitals. Of the hospitalized patients, 113 are in intensive care and 30 are on ventilators.
The nationwide positivity rate for tests taken on Friday – the latest day with available data – was 12.33%.
The CDC considers positivity rates above 10% to be “high.” However, the positivity rate is significantly lower than its peak of 40.83% on January 1st during the Omicron variant’s flowering period.
Seventeen counties remain in the high-risk category for transmission, as reported by the CDC. Only Cumberland, Hunterdon, Sussex and Warren counties are listed in the medium risk category. Warren was the only low-risk county listed the previous week.
TOTALS
New Jersey has reported a total of 2.25 million confirmed COVID-19 cases since the state reported its first known case on March 4, 2020.
The Garden State has also recorded 392,883 positive antigen or rapid tests that are considered probable cases. And there are numerous cases that have likely never been counted, including positive at-home tests that aren’t included in the state’s numbers.
The state of 9.2 million people has reported 34,425 COVID-19 deaths — 31,326 confirmed deaths and 3,099 probable.
New Jersey has the ninth-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the US as of Tuesday – behind Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, New Mexico and Arkansas. Last summer, the state had the most deaths per capita in the nation.
vaccination numbers
More than 7 million people who work, live, or study in the Garden State have achieved full immunization status.
More than 7.89 million have received a first dose since vaccinations began in the state on December 15, 2020.
More than 4.2 million people in the state who are eligible for a refresher have received one.
Regulators have suspended plans to approve a second booster shot for adults under 50 this summer. Instead, they hope to revise the vaccines to target emerging subvariants by the fall.
CARE NUMBERS
At least 9,503 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and employees of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data Wednesday.
Of the active outbreaks at 390 facilities, there are 5,982 current cases among residents and 6,170 among staff, according to the latest data.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
More than 592 million COVID-19 cases had been reported worldwide as of Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus database.
More than 6.4 million people have died as a result of the virus, the data shows.
Japan reported the most cases over the past 28 days, with nearly 5.5 million as of Wednesday. The United States reported the second highest number of cases at 3.2 million during the same period.
The US has reported the most cumulative COVID-19 cases (more than 93 million) and deaths (at least 1.03 million) of any nation.
More than 12 billion vaccine doses have been administered worldwide.
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Nicolas Fernandes can be reached at [email protected].