By Matt Arco | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The coronavirus outbreak in New Jersey increased Monday to 88,806 cases with 4,377 deaths as officials confirmed more than 3,528 new positive tests while expressing hope that increase in cases has continued to slow after aggressive social distancing that has put the state in a near lockdown for weeks.
“It is slowing,” Gov. Phil Murphy said during an afternoon briefing in Trenton. “We have achieved relative stability. We’re now seeing those rates slow. The number of newly hospitalized patients are on a downward trend.”
The latest numbers include 177 additional deaths.
Murphy said the number of patients hospitalized with coronavirus or suspected of being infected has declined and may be a better indication of where New Jersey is in the outbreak, rather than positive tests. The state Department of Health website lists 6,986 people hospitalized at 10 p.m. Sunday, but notes that Holy Name Medical Center, which had 429 patients on Saturday night, is missing from the data.
“The numbers on hospitalizations are a definitive measure,” Murphy said. “This data helps inform our decisions as we look to a re-opening strategy.”
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Murphy said he planned to announce in the coming weeks the benchmarks he would use to determine when the state could start to relax the near-lockdown orders enacted to slow the spread of the outbreak.
“We will be careful and we will be strategic,” Murphy said. “New Jersey is not alone in this. Personal health creates economic health. It can’t be the other way around.”
New Jersey has had 161,714 tested for coronavirus to date and 89,251 have tested negative. In addition, 10,744 of the state’s 88,806 positive tests involve residents of long-term care facilities. To date, 1,779 residents of long-term care facilities have died from COVID-19.
The county-by-county breakdown of cases and deaths include:
- Bergen County: 12,639 with 767 deaths
- Hudson County: 10,486 with 452 deaths
- Essex County: 10,304 with 740 deaths
- Union County: 9,609 with 372 deaths
- Passaic County: 8,288 with 250 deaths
- Middlesex County: 8,017 with 329 deaths
- Monmouth County: 4,669 with 226 deaths
- Ocean County: 4,648 with 217 deaths
- Morris County: 4,136 with 257 deaths
- Mercer County: 2,395 with 113 deaths
- Somerset County: 2,384 with 158 deaths
- Camden County: 2,131 with 74 deaths
- Burlington County: 1,587 with 58 deaths
- Gloucester County: 737 with 24 deaths
- Sussex County: 659 with 62 deaths
- Warren County: 592 with 44 deaths
- Hunterdon County: 407 with 18 deaths
- Atlantic County: 398 with 19 deaths
- Cumberland County: 308 with 4 deaths
- Cape May County: 206 with 14 deaths
- Salem County: 116 with 4 deaths
There are another 660 cases and 1 death under investigation to determine where the person resides.
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