N.J. reports 12 COVID deaths and 26,615 cases as rate of transmission ticks down slightly – NJ.com

New Jersey on Sunday reported another 12 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 26,615 confirmed positive cases, the 12th straight day with at least 20,000 new cases as the rate of transmission in the latest surge dropped slightly for the second day in a row.

The states seven-day average for new confirmed positive tests is now 27,734, up 27% from a week ago and 715% from a month ago as the omicron variant has ripped through the global population.

New Jerseys statewide transmission rate was 1.55 Sunday, down from 1.61 on Saturday and 1.69 on Thursday. It was 1.67 on Friday. Thats down further from a recent high of 1.92 on Jan. 1. Should the transmission rate reach 2.0, it would indicate every infected person is passing the virus along to two people.

But any rate over 1.0 indicates the pandemic is still expanding.

Omicron accounted for 40% of positive tests sampled for the week ending Dec. 18, the most recent available, in New Jersey. That coincides with the sharp increase in cases that began in mid-December. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated omicron accounted for 95% of all new cases across the country during the week that ended Jan. 1.

This comes as Gov. Phil Murphy told NJ Advance Media this week its highly unlikely New Jersey will install any new restrictions to battle the new surge. Instead, Murphy said, the focus will be on increasing vaccine booster shots, helping hospitals with staffing, and expanding testing.

At the same time, state lawmakers are set to allow a number of Murphys remaining emergency pandemic powers and orders to expire Tuesday including mandates for masks in schools and for teachers and health-care workers to be vaccinated or face regular testing.

The decision could force Murphy to declare another public-health emergency to keep the measures in place as New Jersey reports tens of thousands of new cases a day, hospitalizations reach levels not since April 2020.

The 26,615 cases reported Sunday makes a decline from 29,564 cases reported Saturday and Fridays total of 33,459, the states daily record. The state has reported 10 record-breaking days since Dec. 22. Before the latest wave, the states single-day record for confirmed positive tests was 6,922 cases on Jan. 13, 2021, in the early days of vaccine rollout.

The uptick comes as more people are getting tested than ever before. The state on Sunday also reported 2,813 probable cases from antigen testing as more people have sought rapid tests due to long lines for the more reliable PCR tests. However, demand for rapid at-home antigen tests has far exceeded supply. That has presented a challenge for New Jersey hospitals, whose officials report an influx of people going to emergency departments to get a COVID test, even if they dont feel sick.

Officials also say there are signs that while omicron is much more contagious, it may lead to more asymptomatic or less severe cases than previous strains.

But its not just case numbers rising. The 12 confirmed deaths on Sunday bring the total for the last eight days to 405 fatalities. Officials note that daily death reports do not reflect fatalities that occurred in the last 24 hours and reporting is sometimes delayed for days or weeks as fatalities are investigated and certified. The holidays may play a factor in those reporting delays.

There were 5,747 patients across New Jerseys 70 of 71 hospitals with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 as of Saturday night, the most since April 30, 2020, when the initial wave of the pandemic was starting to ease. Patient numbers havent climbed to the heights they did in the very early days of the pandemic when there were more than 8,000 people hospitalized in April 2020. But hospitalizations have increased by more than 3,200 patients over the last two weeks.

Officials say hospitalizations are an important metric to watch because only a portion of people who catch the virus develop severe cases. The goal, officials say, is to prevent hospitals from becoming overstressed and running out of space to care for critically ill patients.

One notable difference compared to previous waves: Officials and experts say many of the people being hospitalized recover more quickly. Still, a big problem is hospitals are dealing with staff shortages because of employees missing work after contracting the virus. Nearly 20,000 hospital employees have contracted COVID-19 since December 2020, when the New Jersey Hospital Association began tracking such data. In a measure of omicrons communicability, 10,345 became infected just in the past 30 days, the NJHA said.

The state Health Department advised hospitals and long-term care facilities to plan for a possible staff vacancy rate of up to 30% as infected health care workers are required to isolate for at least five days.

The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted on Monday, the most recent day available, was 34.33% meaning more than 1 in 3 people who sought a test got a positive result. Positivity rates tend to be higher on weekends due to fewer tests being conducted and the holiday weekend likely pushed that number lower.

The positivity rate, however, has been above 30% since Christmas Day. New Jersey has not had positivity rates hovering around 33% since April 2020.

There are caveats to the recent record case surge. Officials note that testing was less widely available in the first months of the pandemic, making it difficult to compare periods. Significantly more people are being tested now.

Even so, the numbers may not represent the full extent of the current outbreak because countless people are testing positive through at-home test kits that are not reported to local health officials.

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The state does not issue daily breakdowns of the vaccine status of those who test positive, are hospitalized, or died because of the virus.

But Murphy said Monday unvaccinated residents continue to be the primary driver of the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, accounting for roughly 70% of those being hospitalized in New Jersey. Still, he added, infections among fully vaccinated people have been rising, accounting for more than a quarter of new infections over the week of Dec. 13-19.

During that week, the state reported 44,481 positive tests. Of those, 12,453 were from fully vaccinated people, and those cases led to 17 hospitalizations (out of 1,804 total) and 1 death (out of 136 total).

As of Dec. 19, New Jersey has reported a total of 91,896 breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated people, leading to 1,682 hospitalizations and 401 deaths, though those represent a small percentage of total cases.

Officials say vaccinated people are less likely to contract the virus and much less likely to develop life-threatening cases. But officials are calling on more people to get booster shots because the effectiveness of vaccination wanes over time.

About 46% of New Jerseys eligible population has received booster shots, which Murphy said Monday is too low.

All of New Jerseys 21 counties are listed as having high rates of coronavirus transmission, according to the CDC. The agency is recommending that all people in high transmission counties wear masks for indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status.

New Jersey, an early coronavirus hotspot, has now reported 29,444 deaths 26,589 confirmed deaths and 2,855 probable deaths in the more than 22 months since the pandemic began here.

The state has the fourth-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S., behind Mississippi, Arizona, and Alabama.

New Jersey has reported 1,564,370 total confirmed cases out of more than 16.7 million PCR tests conducted since the states first case was announced on March 4, 2020. The state has also reported 250,793 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases.

There were 5,747 people hospitalized hospitalizations throughout the states 70 of 71 hospitals as of Saturday night, up 46 people from the night before despite one hospital not yet reporting data for Sunday. There were 803 people discharged over that same 24-hour period.

Of the people hospitalized in 70 of the 71 hospitals, 833 were in intensive care (21 more than the previous night and the most since May 20, 2020) and 460 were on ventilators (19 more than the previous night and the most since Jan. 2, 2021).

More than 6.44 million of the 8.6 million eligible people who live, work or study in New Jersey have been fully vaccinated and more than 7.33 million have received a first dose since vaccines began here on Dec. 15, 2020.

More than 2.32 million of the 4.95 million people in New Jersey eligible for boosters have received one.

Anyone 16 and older in the U.S. who has received their second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines at least six months ago is eligible to get a booster shot. The Pfizer booster eligibility was recently reduced to five months. Anyone 16 and older who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also eligible for a booster two months after their single shot. In most situations, the CDC said, it recommends the Pfizer and Moderna boosters.

Cases continue to rise among school staff and students in New Jersey, according to numbers released before schools went on winter break that track infections regardless of where the transmission occurred.

For the week ending Dec. 26, with just 28.8% of schools reporting data (down from 61%), another 7,125 confirmed cases were reported among staff (1,973) and students (5,152).

Since the start of the academic year, there have been 48,690 students and 12,008 school staff members who have contracted COVID-19, though the state has never had more than two-thirds of the school districts reporting data in any week.

The state provides total student and staff cases separately from those deemed to be in-school transmission, which is narrowly defined as three or more cases linked through contact tracing.

At least 8,799 of the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data. There were active outbreaks at 513 facilities, resulting in 5,627 current cases among residents and 8,679 cases among staff as of the latest data.

As of Sunday, there have been more than 305 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 5.48 million people having died due to the virus. The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 59.7 million) and deaths (more than 837,800) of any nation.

There have been more than 9.4 billion vaccine doses administered globally.

EDITORS NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported 75 deaths. The 75 deaths referred to hospital-related deaths within the last 24 hours but whether COVID-19 was a factor in them is still being investigated.

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Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @MatthewArco.

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N.J. reports 12 COVID deaths and 26,615 cases as rate of transmission ticks down slightly - NJ.com