Ocean County COVID Cases, Hospitalizations Keep Falling After Omicron Peak

OCEAN COUNTY, NJ — Here's the weekly look at coronavirus cases in Ocean County, including town-by-town totals, and related data since the emergence of the omicron variant in November.

As they have since mid-January, the number of new cases and hospitalizations have continued to decrease.

These statistics, from the state and from the Ocean County Health Department, cover the days from Feb. 5-11. There were an average of 149 new cases per day over the seven days, down from an average of 495 two weeks ago. The number of new cases per day is the lowest it's been since Nov. 5, when the county had a seven-day average of 120 cases per day.

Hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 have continued to fall. Last week, the number of new admissions of patients listed as having COVID-19 was 1,187, according to the state Department of Health COVID-19 database. Over the last week, there were 1,850 people who were positive for COVID-19 discharged from hospitals across the state.

As of Friday, there were 1,593 people hospitalized who were positive for COVID-19 and 197 on ventilators. State officials in January said that about half of the people listed as COVID-19 hospitalizations tested positive when they arrived at the hospital for treatment of other illnesses.

Specifics on hospitalizations in Ocean County in recent days were not available.

The CDC estimates the omicron variant was responsible for 96.4 percent of infections nationally from Jan. 30-Feb. 4, with the secondary omicron variant BA2 accounting for 3.6 percent. The CDC variant proportions are based on representative CDC sequencing data gathered during a four-week period. In the four weeks ending Jan. 15, there were 7,384 New Jersey coronavirus test samples sequenced, with omicron accounting for 93.89 percent of the samples, according to the CDC.

Infections are slowing down across New Jersey, with the state listed as having "moderate" COVID-19 activity in the latest weekly report, through Feb. 5. The determination is based on metrics such as case rate, positivity rate and prevalence of COVID-like illnesses including fever and cough and shortness of breath.

Those numbers continue to drop significantly in the Central East Region, which includes Ocean County. The region's case rate is down to 24.22 cases per 100,000 through Feb. 5, from 40.46 a week earlier and from 222.84 through Jan. 8. The rate of COVID-like illnesses was down to 3.75 percent, down from 5.30 percent the previous week and from 16.07 percent a month ago. Percent positivity declined to 8.33 percent, from 13.02 percent the prior week and from 35.02 percent through Jan. 8.

Home tests that are not submitted to a laboratory are not counted in the numbers, so it's unclear how much home testing is affecting the case counts.

There were 38 new deaths from Feb. 5-11, bringing the county's cumulative total to 2,623, according to Ocean County Health Department statistics.

The Ocean County Health Department data includes the town-by-town case totals. It also includes a breakdown by age of how many cases have been diagnosed in each age group.

The age breakdown is as follows for new infections reported from Feb. 4-9: 0-18, 318; 19-44, 336; 45-64, 245; 65-74, 81; 75-84, 61; 85+, 31; total 1,072

The total new cases town-by-town for Ocean County for the seven days ending Feb. 11 are as follows:

• Barnegat Light: 2 new cases, 65 total cases, 3.17 percent increase
• Barnegat Township: 61, 4,605 total cases, 1.34 percent increase
• Bay Head: 2 new cases, 153 total cases, 1.32 percent increase
• Beach Haven: 1 new case, 129 total cases, 0.78 percent increase
• Beachwood: 25 new cases, 2,444 total cases, 1.03 percent increase
• Berkeley Township: 70 new cases, 8,720 total cases, 0.81 percent increase
• Brick Township: 163 new cases, 17,574 total cases, 0.94 percent increase
• Eagleswood Township: 1 new case, 323 total cases, 0.31 percent increase
• Harvey Cedars: 0 new cases, 33 total cases, 0 percent increase (2nd straight week w/no increase)
• Island Heights: 0 new cases, 265 total cases, 0 percent increase
• Jackson Township: 88 new cases, 12,431 total cases, 0.71 percent increase
• Lacey Township: 56 new cases, 5,654 total cases, 1.00 percent increase
• Lakehurst: 7 new cases, 596 total cases, 1.19 percent increase
• Lakewood: 184 new cases, 23,585 total cases, 0.79 percent increase
• Lavallette: 0 new cases, 343 total cases, 0 percent increase
• Little Egg Harbor Township: 33 new cases, 3,907 total cases, 0.85 percent increase
• Long Beach Township: 3 new cases, 342 total cases, 0.88 percent increase
• Manchester: 85 new cases, 8,216 total cases, 1.05 percent increase
• Mantoloking: 2 new cases, 50 total cases, 4.17 percent increase
• Ocean Gate: 1 new case, 366 total cases, 0.27 percent increase
• Ocean Twp. (Waretown): 16 new cases, 1,493 total cases, 1.08 percent increase
• Pine Beach: 2 new cases, 437 total cases, 0.46 percent increase
• Plumsted Township: 16 new cases, 1,493 total cases, 1.08 percent increase
• Point Pleasant Beach: 5 new cases, 931 total cases, 0.54 percent increase
• Point Pleasant: 35 new cases, 4,615 total cases, 0.76 percent increase
• Seaside Heights: 5 new cases, 538 total cases, 0.94 percent increase
• Seaside Park: 0 new cases, 205 total cases, 0 percent increase
• Ship Bottom: 0 new cases, 185 total cases, 0 percent increase
• South Toms River: 7 new cases, 839 total cases, 0.84 percent increase
• Stafford Township: 67 new cases, 5,079 total cases, 1.34 percent increase
• Surf City: 0 new cases, 236 total cases, 0 percent increase
• Toms River: 141 new cases, 21,041 total cases, 0.67 percent increase
• Tuckerton: 2 new cases, 563 total cases, 0.36 percent increase

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