Mask Recommendations Return In NJ As COVID Transmission Rises

NEW JERSEY — Another fall, another rise in COVID-19 transmission. And for the first time in a month, federal health officials recommended masks for indoor, public spaces in parts of New Jersey.

The CDC adopted the community-level metric — a 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.

New Jersey went three straight weeks without any counties in the high category. As of Thursday, two entered the category.

Here's how the map changed from last week's:

• Burlington and Cumberland Counties went from the medium to the high categories.
• Northeastern New Jersey improved, with Sussex, Warren and Hunterdon Counties falling from the medium threshold to the low marker.
• Bergen and Union Counties jump from low to medium levels.

The CDC's mask recommendations do not trigger any mandates in New Jersey. People may also choose to continue masking in any setting.

NJ By The Numbers

New Jersey officials tallied slightly more hospital patients with confirmed or suspected COVID this week than last. The state's hospitals had 952 COVID patients as of Wednesday — the New Jersey Department of Health's last day of complete hospitalization data as of Friday morning. One week prior (Sept. 21), the state reported 915 COVID hospitalizations.

The state has stayed below 1,200 COVID hospitalizations each day since last winter's omicron wave, which peaked at 6,089 patients on Jan. 11.

New Jersey's transmission rate increased from 1.07 on Sept. 23 to 1.14 as of Friday morning, according to the state health department. A transmission rate lower than 1 indicates that each existing infection causes less than one new infection — a sign that the virus's spread is slowing down. But a transmission rate higher than 1 signals a quickening spread that could lead to infections increasing.

True case totals became more difficult to calculate in recent months because of the prevalence of at-home tests that don't typically get recorded in COVID statistics. But New Jersey's case numbers have steadily increased since early September.

The state averaged 2,297 new cases per day in the past week — slightly higher than the prior week's average of 2,288 daily infections, according to federal data. New Jersey's low point for the month came during the week ending Sept. 5, when the state averaged 1,675 daily infections.

Thirty-seven people in New Jersey died from the virus in the past week, according to the CDC. During that span, federal officials measured about 3,290 COVID deaths around the nation.

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

What Else You Should Know

Here's more COVID news that could impact you.

• The World Health Organization warned Sept. 22 that it's struggling to identify and track new variants as governments roll back testing and surveillance. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of an "ever-present risk of more dangerous variants occurring, CNBC reports.
• Three weeks into the rollout of the updated COVID vaccines, only 1.5 percent of eligible Americans received a bivalent booster, per NBC News.