Eighteen of the state’s 21 counties are now considered at high risk of transmission, the CDC said Wednesday, up from just six in mid-July. Only Mercer, Cumberland and Salem counties remain in the medium risk category. The CDC recommends that residents of high-risk areas wear masks indoors. The state’s seven-day average for confirmed positive tests is 2,689, down 7% from last week but up 12% from a month ago. The transmission rate in New Jersey was 1 on Wednesday, according to the state Department of Health. When the transmission rate is 1, it means that the cases have leveled off with the current numbers. Anything above 1 means the outbreak is expanding. A transmission rate below 1 is an indication that the coronavirus epidemic is declining, as each new case leads to less than one additional new case. There were 1,070 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported at 70 of the state’s 71 hospitals as of Wednesday. Of those hospitalized, 108 are hospitalized in the intensive care unit and 34 are on ventilators. The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Friday — the most recent day with data available — was 13.01 percent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers positivity rates above 10% to be “high.” However, the positivity rate is significantly lower than the peak of 40.83% on January 1st during the height of the micron variant. TOTAL NUMBERS New Jersey has reported 2.22 million total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in more than two years since the state reported its first known case on March 4, 2020. The Garden State has also recorded 384,824 antigen or rapid test positives, which are considered probable cases. And there are many cases that have likely never been counted, including positive home tests that are not included in the state’s numbers. The state of 9.2 million people has reported 34,307 deaths from COVID-19 — 31,211 confirmed deaths and 3,096 probable deaths. New Jersey has the ninth most coronavirus deaths per capita in the US — behind Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, New Mexico and Arkansas — as of July 25. Last summer, the state had the most deaths per capita in the nation. VACCINATION NUMBERS More than 6.99 million people who work, live or study in the Garden State have reached fully vaccinated status. Over 7.88 million have received the first dose since vaccinations began in the state on December 15, 2020. More than 4.17 million people in the state who are eligible for boosters have received one. That number may increase after the Food and Drug Administration approved booster shots for healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11. US regulators have approved the booster for children, hoping an extra dose of vaccine will boost their protection as infections continue to spread. Regulators have stalled plans to approve a second booster shot for adults under 50 this summer. Instead, they hope to revamp vaccines to target emerging subvariants by fall. LONG-TERM CARE NUMBERS At least 9,460 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths were among residents and staff members in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data from Wednesday. Of the active cases in 393 facilities, there are 5,235 current cases among residents and 5,604 cases among staff, according to the latest figures. WORLD NUMBERS As of Wednesday, more than 579 million cases of COVID-19 have been reported worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus database. More than 6.4 million people have died because of the virus, the figures show. The US has reported the most COVID-19 cases (over 91.6 million) and deaths (at least 1.03 million) of any country. More than 11.9 billion doses of vaccines have been administered worldwide. Our journalism needs your support. Sign up today at NJ.com. Nicolas Fernandes can be contacted at [email protected].
