N.J. reports 1,634 Covid-19 cases

New Jersey on Wednesday reported eight new COVID-19 deaths and 1,634 confirmed positive tests.

New Jersey’s seven-day average for confirmed cases was 1,642 Wednesday, up 8% from a week ago, and up 146% from a month ago.

There were 396 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across 68 of the state’s 71 hospitals as of Tuesday night. Three hospitals did not report data. Hospitalizations hit a recent peak of 6,089 on January 10 during the omicron wave that spread across the state this winter. There were at least 64 people discharged in that same 24-hour period ending Tuesday night, according to state data. Of those hospitalized, 46 were in intensive care and 20 were on ventilators.

New Jersey’s transmission rate was 1.24 on Tuesday. When the transmission rate is over 1, that means each new case is leading to at least one additional case and the outbreak is expanding.

The state on Wednesday also reported 654 probable cases from rapid antigen testing at medical sites.

Nearly all of New Jersey’s 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. After months of all 21 counties being listed as “low,” Bergen County has been elevated to “medium” transmission. Healthy people in the low and medium areas are no longer required 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 does not cause more severe illness.

New Jersey has reported 1,927,349 total confirmed COVID 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 state of 9.2 million residents has reported 33,356 COVID-19 deaths.

New Jersey has the seventh highest coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S., behind Mississippi, Arizona, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia, as of the latest data reported April 11. Last summer, the state still had the most deaths per capita in the country.

The number of New Jersey residents fully vaccinated has reached more than 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.

As of Wednesday, there have been more than 506 million COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 6.2 million people having died due to the virus.

The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 80 million) and deaths (at least 989,396) of any nation.

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