NJ Cracks 1,000 COVID Hospitalizations For 1st Time Since May

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey surpassed 1,000 coronavirus hospitalizations for the first time since May, according to the New Jersey Department of Health. Hospitalizations from the virus have also more than tripled since early July.

The Garden State stands at 1,012 people with active COVID-19 hospitalizations as of Thursday afternoon. Ninety-one people are on ventilators. New Jersey only had 306 hospitalizations from the virus on July 1, according to the state health department.

The surge of people in the hospital comes as some states face shortages of hospital beds because of an increase in COVID patients. Arkansas and Alabama officials reported last week that their states ran out of ICU beds, while Florida has filled about 94 percent and Idaho, Nevada and Illinois have stated they're nearing capacity limits.

But so far, New Jersey has not neared its peaks for hospitalizations during the coronavirus crisis. The state reported as many as 6,100 in late April 2020 and nearly 4,000 during last winter's surge. Patients — COVID and non-COVID — are occupying about 43 percent of the state's ICU beds, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

New Jersey has reported among the highest vaccination rates in the nation, with 63.7 percent of adults ages 18-64 and 88.7 percent of seniors fully inoculated against the virus, according to the Mayo Clinic.

State officials say most of the recent hospitalizations come from unvaccinated patients. From Aug. 2 to 9, fully vaccinated individuals accounted for 25 of the state's 608 COVID hospitalizations. Of the state's 53 coronavirus deaths in that span, none were vaccinated, according to Gov. Phil Murphy.

Fifty-eight people with breakthrough cases in New Jersey have died from the virus.

"Regardless, that current total number of 58 COVID-related deaths among the more than 10,000 breakthrough cases among the more than 5.1 million fully vaccinated individuals pales in comparison to the total number of deaths due to COVID from the 4.1 million who are unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated," Murphy said.