This story is being republished under a special NJ News Commons content-sharing agreement related to COVID-19 coverage. Link to story: njspotlightnews.org/2022/03/nj-spotlight-news-roundtable-health-care-experts-living-with-covid-pandemic-endemic
New Jersey on Thursday reported another seven confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 1,143 positive tests, providing a possible early indication of a rise in cases after months of steady declines.
The state’s seven-day average for confirmed cases was 786 on Thursday, up 2% from a week ago, but that comparison includes a day when the state added 1,000 older test results to the total following a lab delay. Without the lab delay, the actual week-over-week increase in cases is 25 percent. Positive tests are still down 33% from a month ago.
New Jersey health officials warned last week that an increase in cases is expected with the spread of the omicron subvariant BA.2, sometimes referred to as the “stealth variant,” but Gov. Phil Murphy has said he does not expect to reinstate any restrictions.
There were 379 patients with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across the state’s 71 hospitals as of Wednesday night. That’s down 25 patients from the day before and the fewest patients since late July. Hospitalizations hit a recent peak at 6,089 on January 10 during the omicron wave.
