More Masks Called For In NJ After New CDC COVID Report

NEW JERSEY — Federal health officials recommend masking for indoor, public spaces in 13 New Jersey counties. Although the CDC added two more counties to its masking recommendations this week, the state's COVID case totals recently began declining from the springtime surge.

The CDC recommends masking in counties with "high" COVID-19 community levels — a metric based on hospitalizations and case rates that the agency adopted in late February. The agency updates its color-coded COVID maps each Thursday — this week adding Warren and Hunterdon Counties. The agency already recommended indoor masking in Sussex, Morris, Mercer, Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May, Burlington, Camden, Salem and Gloucester Counties.

All other New Jersey counties have medium COVID community levels.

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

New Jersey's springtime COVID wave began waning in late May. The state averaged 3,845 new cases per day in the past week — a decline from the seven-day average of 5,073 infections per day for the week ending May 24, according to federal data.

Hospitalizations from the virus have yet to steadily decrease during the recent surge. But hospitalizations are a lagging indicator of COVID activity and often begin to decline after new cases diminish.

The state had 924 hospital patients with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Thursday, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. That's far less than the state's reported total during the peak of last winter's omicron wave (6,089 patients on Jan. 11) but an increase from the end of March (334 patients on March 30).

Nonetheless, federal data indicated that New Jersey had nearly eight times as many reported cases this Memorial Day (2,413) than last year's (306) — a trend seen nationwide. New Jersey ended most of its indoor mask mandates May 29, 2021 — the Friday of last year's Memorial Day weekend.

Seventy-six people in New Jersey died from COVID in the past week, according to the CDC.

All of New Jersey has high COVID transmission — as does most of the nation, according to the CDC. The map below shows COVID activity levels according to the CDC's prior framework for determining them, which prioritized transmission:

But the state's transmission rate reduced to 0.96 as of Friday, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. A transmission rate lower than 1 indicates that each existing infection causes less than one new infection, indicating the spread of the virus is slowing down.