By Allison Perrine
NEW JERSEY – The state has now met more than 40 percent of the goal to vaccinate 4.7 million New Jerseyans before the end of June.
Wednesday afternoon during a routine press conference, Gov. Phil Murphy announced that there are now at least 1,896,442 fully-vaccinated individuals statewide. The news comes the same week vaccine eligibility expanded to those ages 55 and up, and two weeks before expanding to anyone ages 16 and up as of April 19. The federal government made the same expansion.
“Given the trajectory we are on, we believe this is the right time to put our program into higher gear,” said Murphy. “We’re not suggesting that everyone who wants one has got one, but we want to make sure we continue these overlapping waves, and we believe we can responsibly move that date up from May 1 to April 19.”
However, Murphy urges residents to continue social distancing and wearing facial coverings. He presented a pandemic modeling update that gave insight to what the peak numbers could look like in best-, moderate- and high-case scenarios and the dates in which those numbers are expected to be reached.
According to the model, in the best-case scenario: There would be 4,344 COVID-positive cases, 2,129 hospitalizations, 458 in intensive care units and 255 on ventilators by April 18. In moderate-case scenarios, there would be 5,445 positive cases, 2,669 hospitalizations, 574 in intensive care units and 319 on ventilators by April 18. And in high-case scenarios, there would be 8,162 cases and 3,644 hospitalizations by May 18, as well as 776 in intensive care units by May 21 and 421 on ventilators by May 12.
“The most troubling aspect of the high-case scenario isn’t necessarily the peak in terms of the numbers, all those numbers are concerning, but the slow decline on the other side,” said Murphy.
Under the high-case model, the state predicts a second uptick in COVID-19 cases by mid-June with a slower decline throughout the summer. In the best- and moderate-case scenarios, there would not be a second uptick. This is partly why the state moved up its vaccine eligibility timeframe “aggressively” so more people could be fully vaccinated in a shorter amount of time, Murphy said. He anticipates that the state will see numbers along the best- and moderate-case scenarios but urged residents to continue keeping distance from others and following other protocols to avoid contracting the virus. Anyone eligible for the vaccine can visit covid19.nj.gov/finder to find available appointments.
As of Wednesday, April 7, there had been a total of 824,179 positive PCR tests and 113,800 presumed-positive antigen tests detecting traces of COVID-19. In the Two River area specifically, the cumulative positive COVID-19 case totals reached 323 in Atlantic Highlands; 930 in Colts Neck; 456 in Fair Haven; 349 in Highlands; 1,520 in Holmdel; 573 in Little Silver; 5,871 in Middletown; 319 in Monmouth Beach; 609 in Oceanport; 1,645 in Red Bank; 632 in Rumson; 132 in Sea Bright; 505 in Shrewsbury Borough; and 1,705 in Tinton Falls.
As of 10 p.m. Tuesday night the total number of hospitalized individuals reached 2,375, 2,244 of whom were known COVID-19-positive and the others awaiting test results. Additionally, there were 455 people in intensive care units and 249 on ventilators. As of April 3, the daily positivity rate reached 12.37 percent.
According to Judy Persichilli, commissioner of the state Department of Health, there are more young people being admitted to hospitals with cases of COVID-19, which was not seen previously. As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, 338 people were discharged from hospitals, 367 patients were admitted and 28 in-hospital deaths occurred that have not yet been lab-confirmed to be related to COVID-19.
“New Jersey ranks third in hospitalizations per 100,000 in the U.S. and we rank seventh in deaths per 100,000 in the U.S. per day. Unfortunately, our deaths still remain in double digits,” said Persichilli. “The statistics show that this virus is unrelenting and we are still in the midst of this battle. We cannot let our guard down despite the increasing number of vaccinations. We must remain vigilant.”
This article was originally published in the April 8-14, 2021 print edition of The Two River Times.
