Updated 2:48 PM; Today 1:10 PM
By Brent Johnson and Len Melisurgo | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Seven weeks after Gov. Phil Murphy ordered residents to stay home and non-essential businesses to close to fight the spread, New Jersey’s death toll from the coronavirus increased to at least 9,116 fatalities Saturday, with state officials reporting at least 137,085 total cases since the outbreak started in early March.
Officials confirmed another 166 deaths attributed to COVID-19 and 1,759 new positive tests in the 9 million-resident Garden State, which has more cases and deaths than any U.S. state but New York.
Murphy said the daily number of cases and hospitalizations keeps dropping. But he has yet to give a definitive timeline for gradually peeling back his near-lockdown orders, saying the state risks the numbers jumping again if reopening is rushed. He has called on residents to continue social distancing and wearing face masks when going out to stores or parks.
This is the fourth straight day there were fewer than 2,000 new positive COVID-19 tests announced, even though deaths are up.
Murphy said the state is “seeing the most progress” in the number of positive tests that come back each day. It fell from the 50% range a month ago to 27% on Monday, he said.Governor Phil Murphy✔@GovMurphy
For the latest tests which we can assign a collection date to – in this case May 5th – that rate had dipped to 27 percent.
We’re making progress.
The governor also said the total number of patients in intensive care is getting better, but not at the rate “we’d like to see.”
“We are not out of the woods, folks,” Murphy added during his daily coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
About half of the state’s COVID-19 deaths have come at longterm care facilities, such as nursing homes and veterans homes. There were 4,825 deaths at the facilities as of Friday, officials said — 124 more than the day before.
Meanwhile, more than half of the state’s known fatalities have had underlying conditions, according to the state’s coronavirus tracking website.
On Friday, the state reported a 4-year-old girl with an underlying medical condition was the first child in New Jersey to die from COVID-19 complications. Officials declined to provide additional details about the child’s death, including which town or county she was from.
On Saturday, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said there is “no indication at this point that the death was related to Kawasaki,” a rare disease that has been linked to children infected with COVID-19. Persichilli and Murphy, however, would not disclose that the underlying medical condition was.
“This is a very specific situation with this blessed little kid,” Murphy said, adding he would not release any other details about how the child died.
There have been a total of 273,375 COVID-19 tests performed in New Jersey, with a positivity rate of 38.7%, according to the state’s coronavirus tracking website.
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