2nd NJ Baby Dies From Flu As State Weathers COVID, 'Tripledemic'

NEW JERSEY — A second baby in New Jersey died from influenza, marking the state's first pediatric flu deaths in nearly three years. Meanwhile, federal health officials recommended mask-wearing in almost all of New Jersey.

New Jersey continues to weather the "tripledemic" — the simultaneous threat of COVID-19, the flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — which continues to strain hospitals and pediatric departments around the nation.

Last week, state officials reported New Jersey's first pediatric flu death of the illness season — a male infant. The second decedent was a male younger than 2 years old, a spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Health told Patch.

• Read more: NJ Infant Dies From Flu As 'Tripledemic' Hospitalizations Rise

The second pediatric death was disclosed in the state health department's weekly report that monitors flu and respiratory illness, which reflects information through the week ending Dec. 17.

The state reported two pediatric influenza deaths during the 2019-20 flu season and six fatalities during the illness season of the prior year.

Children have been less likely overall than older age groups to develop severe disease or die from COVID. State officials have reported 16 child COVID deaths, including four ages 4 and younger, since the onset of the pandemic.

Influenza is different in that children under 5 carry a higher risk than most of developing serious complications. High-risk groups for influenza also include people 65 and older, pregnant individuals and people with certain chronic health conditions, the CDC says.

The CDC recommended masking up for indoor, public spaces in all New Jersey counties except Sussex, Somerset and Mercer Counties. The 18 counties in the red have high COVID community levels, according to the agency.

The CDC adopted the community-level metric — based on hospitalizations and case rates — in late February. The agency updates its color-coded COVID maps each Thursday, recommending masks in counties with "high" community levels.

The following areas went from medium to high levels this week: Morris, Hunterdon, Ocean, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem Counties.

The mask recommendations don't trigger any mandates in New Jersey, and people may also choose to continue masking in any setting.

Here's how the tripledemic continues to impact New Jersey.

State Of NJ Hospitals

State officials reported 1,453 hospital patients with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Wednesday — 82 more patients than one week prior.

Tuesday's tally of 1,485 COVID patients marked New Jersey's highest total since Feb. 11, when last winter's omicron wave waned. The omicron surge peaked with 6,089 COVID hospitalizations in the state on Jan. 11.

New Jersey's intensive-care units continue to fare better than the nation's as a whole, with 45.7 percent of the state's ICU beds in use as of Friday, according to federal data. Seventy-six percent of ICU beds in the U.S. are occupied.

Additionally, 70.7 percent of New Jersey's in-patient beds are occupied, with 6.8 percent in use for COVID. The ratio becomes concerning when COVID patients exceed 10 percent of inpatient beds, representing "extreme stress" at 20 percent, according to a framework developed by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Sixty-four percent of New Jersey's pediatric beds were occupied as of Thursday, according to NBC News analysis of federal data.

The CDC reported 107 COVID deaths in New Jersey over the past week. The estimated national death toll from the virus totaled about 2,900 people in that span.

Flu Taking Its Toll

Influenza made a minimal impact during the first two years of the pandemic, when stricter virus-mitigation were in place. Along with zero pediatric deaths, the state reported only 20 severe cases — those that require ICU admission — among children (one for the 2020-21 flu season, 19 during last year's).

As of Dec. 17, state officials reported 35 severe pediatric flu cases for the season — the most since the 57 reported for the entirety of the 2019-20 influenza season.

New Jersey doesn't have a publicly available influenza death toll for this season. Since influenza surveillance doesn't capture all flu cases, the CDC merely has a wide-ranging, preliminary national estimate of 12,000-35,000 flu deaths from Oct. 1 through Dec. 17.

But several factors indicate that New Jersey is dealing with one of its toughest flu seasons in recent years. Influenza activity remains high in every region of the state, with 65,311 cases reported this season. Thirty-seven respiratory outbreaks have occurred in longterm-care facilities, including 17 in the past three weeks.

The Garden State saw dips this week in three key flu metrics involving emergency-room visits, ER admissions and school absenteeism. However, New Jersey has so far exceeded its figures for its worst flu seasons in the past decade.

• Two weeks ago, roughly 10 percent of New Jersey's ER visits were linked to influenza-like illnesses (ILI). The ratio fell for the second straight week, hovering just above 8 percent. But that's still more than double the average of that time of year during New Jersey's worst flu seasons in the past decade.

• About 3.5 percent of those ER visits required admission — down from the figure of about 4 percent two weeks prior. However, New Jersey continues to outpace its three worst recent flu seasons in this regard.

• School absenteeism has declined recently but remained on pace this week with the decade's most severe flu seasons.

COVID Rising In Wastewater

COVID levels in the region's wastewater have nearly doubled in the past month and reached their highest totals since January, according to Biobot Analytics, which monitors sewage as it relates to public health.

Virus levels in the wastewater can often indicate COVID's prevalence in communities before lagging indicators, such as hospitalizations or deaths. Wastewater samples in the Northeast region, which includes New Jersey, averaged their highest COVID levels since the week of Jan. 19 — toward the peak of the omicron wave.

The Northeast logged COVID-wastewater levels nearly twice as high as the Midwest, which sustained the second-highest concentration.

For reference, the Northeast averaged 1,665 COVID copies per milliliter of sewage (copies/mL) this week, according to Biobot Analytics. The company reported a national pandemic record of 7,185 copies/mL in the region for the week of Dec. 29, 2021. In the ensuing weeks, New Jersey reached a state record of daily cases (33,459 on Jan. 7), approached its record for COVID hospitalizations (6,089 on Jan. 11) and logged its most significant wave of deaths from the virus since the beginning of the pandemic.

For more coronavirus numbers, visit the state health department's COVID-19 dashboard, The New York Times data page for New Jersey, the CDC's data tracker and Biobot's wastewater webpage.