NJ's COVID Numbers Rise, Mask Guidance Adjusted

NEW JERSEY — During the past two fall seasons, COVID-19 increased its presence in New Jersey. While it's early in the season, the state observed bumps in key virus metrics such as hospitalizations and transmission.

Masking guidance from federal officials remains relatively unchanged though. 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.

For the third straight week, New Jersey has no counties with high community levels.

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

• Morris County went from the medium to the low category.
• Cumberland County rose into medium community 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

Although New Jersey's COVID hospitalizations increased, they remain low compared to past points of the pandemic. The state had 887 hospital patients with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Thursday — up from 838 a week prior but lower than Wednesday's mark of 915 people.

The state's transmission rate changed more significantly in the past week, going from 0.89 on Sept. 16 to 1.07 as of Friday morning. 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 2,313 new cases per day in the past week — up from 2,079 per day in the prior week, 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.

Forty-four people in New Jersey died from the virus in the past week, according to the CDC. About 2,700 people around the nation died from COVID in the past week, per federal estimates.

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.

• New Jersey's health care and hospital system could collapse. And while it likely won't occur anytime soon, reversing the possibility of collapse will require greater support for the nursing profession, according to leadership in the New Jersey State Nurses Association. Read more.
• President Joe Biden declared the pandemic "over" in a "60 Minutes" interview that aired Sunday. The declaration surprised his own senior health officials and had not been discussed with his health advisors, sources told Politico.