N.J. reports 4 COVID deaths, 1,012 cases – 7th straight day with over 1K positive tests – NJ.com

New Jersey on Monday reported four confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 1,012 confirmed positive tests as the seven-day average for cases continues to steadily rise after hitting recent lows in March.

The states seven-day average for confirmed cases increased to 1,419 Monday, up 42% from a week ago and 83% from a month ago. The seven-day average had hit a recent low of 631 on March 17.

Mondays case total marks seven consecutive days of more than 1,000 new confirmed positive tests.

At his first public appearance last week since testing positive, Gov. Phil Murphy urged the public to continue to be smart and safe, and continue to use common sense and common courtesy.

There were 366 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across 69 of the states 71 hospitals as of Sunday night. Two hospitals did not report data.

By comparison, hospitalizations hit a recent peak at 6,089 on Jan. 10 during the omicron wave that hit the state this winter.

There were at least 48 people discharged in that same 24-hour period ending Sunday night, according to state data. Of those hospitalized, 38 were in intensive care and 26 were on ventilators.

New Jerseys transmission rate increased to 1.23 on Monday from 1.19 Sunday. When the transmission rate is over 1, that means each new case is leading to at least 1 other new case and the outbreak is expanding.

The statewide daily positivity rate for tests conducted Wednesday, the most recent day available, was 5.3%.

The state on Monday also reported 205 probable cases from rapid antigen testing at medical sites. The daily case counts, however, come with the caveat that many people are now relying on free at-home COVID-19 tests, which are not reported to state health officials.

All of New Jerseys 21 counties were listed as having low rates of transmission, according to recently updated guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Healthy people in the low and medium categories are no longer recommended to wear masks.

BA.2, the new strain of COVID-19, has been spreading in New Jersey for weeks, though at much lower rates than the omicron surge in December and January. Officials have said the omicron stealth subvariant appears to spread more easily but generally not cause more severe illness.

For the week ending March 26, BA.2 accounted for 81.2% of the positive tests sampled (up from 70.5% the previous week), while the omicron variant accounted for 18.8% of positive tests sampled.

New Jersey has reported 1,912,503 total confirmed cases out of more than 17.5 million PCR tests conducted in the more than two years since the state reported its first known case March 4, 2020.

The Garden State has also recorded 304,301 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases. And there are numerous cases that have likely never been counted, including at-home positive tests that are not included in the states numbers.

The state of 9.2 million residents has reported 33,308 COVID-19 deaths in that time 30,294 confirmed fatalities and 3,014 probable.

New Jersey has the seventh-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S. behind Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia as of the latest data reported Monday. Last summer, the state still had the most deaths per capita in the country.

More than 6.83 million of the 8.46 million eligible people who live, work or study in New Jersey have received the initial course of vaccinations and more than 7.76 million have received a first dose since vaccinations began here on Dec. 15, 2020.

While the number of N.J. residents fully vaccinated has reached over 6.8 million, the latest numbers also follow a major study that reveals even a mild case of COVID-19 can significantly affect the brain.

More than 3.38 million people in the state eligible for boosters have received one.

For the week ending March 27, with around 62% of schools reporting data, another 1,910 COVID-19 cases were reported among staff (547) and students (1,363) across New Jerseys schools.

Since the start of the academic year, there have been 106,425 students and 29,063 school staff members who have contracted COVID-19 in New Jersey, 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.

New Jersey has reported 557 total in-school outbreaks, including 3,941 cases among students and staff. That includes 21 new outbreaks from data reported last week.

At least 9,422 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 134 facilities, resulting in 2,677 current cases among residents and 3,188 cases among staff as of the latest data.

As of Monday, there have been more than 498.1 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 6.17 million people having died due to the virus.

The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 80 million) and deaths (at least 985,482) of any nation.

There have been more than 11 billion vaccine doses administered globally.

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Steven Rodas may be reached at srodas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him @stevenrodasnj.

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N.J. reports 4 COVID deaths, 1,012 cases - 7th straight day with over 1K positive tests - NJ.com