By Brent Johnson | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
New Jersey on Thursday reported 4,320 more coronavirus cases and 34 additional deaths, while hospitalizations rose for the 20th straight day as Gov. Phil Murphy warned the next few months could be “brutal” as the second wave of the pandemic hits the state.
The Garden State has now announced more than 4,000 COVID-19 cases in five of the six last days, pushing its total 293,744 positive tests out of more than 5.46 million tests administered since the start of the outbreak in March.
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The state of 9 million residents has reported 16,689 coronavirus deaths in that time, including 14,877 confirmed fatalities and 1,812 considered probable.
“The virus is in the second wave with a vengeance,” Gov. Phil Murphy said during a virtual economic development event Thursday. “We’re in for a rough few months here, both as a state and as a country. It’s going to get worse before it gets better.”
New Jersey’s latest seven-day average for new positive tests increased to 3,858 on Thursday, up 35% from a week ago and 277% from a month earlier. Fifteen of the state’s 21 counties reported at least 100 new cases, led by Bergen and Essex counties, which both topped 400.
The seven-day average of cases is now higher than the pandemic’s first wave in the spring, though the comparison is deceiving because the state was conducting less than 12,000 tests then and the outbreak was likely undercounted. The state is now averaging more than 40,000 tests a day, and that number does not include recently-deployed rapid tests.
But hospitalizations, patients in intensive care and on ventilators, positivity rate, transmission rate, and deaths have all been rising in recent weeks.
There were 2,471 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases in New Jersey on Wednesday. That’s much lower than the 8,000 who were hospitalized in April but the most since May 29. Hospitalizations have more than tripled over the last month.
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