New Jersey health officials on Friday reported another 344 COVID-19 cases and six new confirmed deaths.
The statewide rate of transmission has been 0.80 since Thursday, after dropping from 0.95 last week. A transmission rate of 1 means the number of cases have leveled off, while anything below 1 means the outbreak is declining.
The state’s seven-day average for confirmed positive tests is 680 — down 26% from a week ago and down 53% from a month ago.
The CDC considers 11 counties in the state to have “medium” community levels of the coronavirus. Ten counties — Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Passaic, Somerset, Union and Warren — have “low” community levels.
Case counts and hospitalization numbers by region determine each county’s community level, according to the CDC.
There were 772 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases reported across 67 of the state’s 70 hospitals Thursday night. Of those hospitalized, 96 are in intensive care and 35 are on ventilators.
The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Thursday, the most recent day for which data is available, was 6.07%.
TOTAL NUMBERS
New Jersey has reported more than 2.5 million total confirmed COVID-19 cases since it announced its first known case of the virus on March 4, 2020.
The Garden State has also recorded 497,132 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases. There are also numerous cases that were likely never counted, including at-home positive tests that are not included in the state’s numbers.
The state of 9.2 million residents has reported 35,956 COVID-19 deaths — 32,840 confirmed fatalities and 3,116 probable ones.
New Jersey has the 10th-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S. as of Monday.
VACCINATION NUMBERS
More than 7.1 million people who work, live or study in New Jersey have reached fully vaccinated status. More than 8 million people have received a first dose since vaccinations began in the state on Dec. 15, 2020.
More than 4.3 million people in the state eligible for boosters have received one.
LONG-TERM CARE NUMBERS
At least 10,075 of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to the most recent state data.
Of the active outbreaks at 364 facilities, there are 11,656 current cases among residents and 7,392 cases among staff, according to the latest data.
GLOBAL NUMBERS
There have been more than 675 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus database.
More than 6.8 million people have died because of the virus, the data shows.
The U.S. has reported the most cumulative cases (more than 103 million) and deaths (at least 1.1 million) of any nation.
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Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at [email protected]