Surges In NJ, 4 States Account For Half Of All New US COVID Cases

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey is among five states that are behind nearly half of the country's new COVID-19 infections over the most recent seven-day period, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Florida together reported 197,500 new cases — that's 44 percent of the nation's new coronavirus infections, an analysis by NBC News shows. There were 452,000 total infections in the United States over the same seven-day period.

New Jersey has been dealing with a surge in new cases — with new daily cases hitting their highest levels in months — and the positivity rate also has been peaking recently.

The report comes as Rutgers-Camden released a study showing how much COVID has impacted each New Jersey town. Read more: Report Shows Town-By-Town NJ COVID Impact, Infection Rates Ranked

On Monday, the positivity rate in the Garden State was 9.14 percent. This was an improvement from previous weeks — on March 27, the recorded positivity rate was at 14.26 percent. Statewide, the rate of transmission is 1.07 percent, which also has dropped slightly, officials said.

To combat this next surge, state officials are urging eligible residents to get inoculated. More than 1 million New Jersey residents have been fully vaccinated, with 3.1 million having received at least one vaccine shot.

In an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said the pace of vaccinations across the state has “picked up” with each passing week.

“We want to get 70 percent of our adults vaccinated by the end of June, that's 4.7 million New Jerseyans,” Murphy said.

“Right now as we sit here 3 million have received their first shot, 1.8 million are completed, through their course.”

When asked if New Jersey is in a “new wave,” Murphy said the state was in a “plateau.”

“We’re up somewhat over the past couple of weeks, but still down meaningfully from where we were in January.”

Murphy said the state “could use more” of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“We made a decision early on to build out our distribution system; we've got 780 different places in the state right now where you can get a vaccine. We just need more supply,” he said.

New Jersey also reported 827 COVID-19 variant cases, which are known to spread more quickly and perhaps cause more harmful effects.

The most widespread of these contagious variants, the B.1.1.7 first detected in the U.K., is present in New Jersey according to data from CDC. That variant has been found in every New Jersey county for a grand total of 806.

As of Wednesday, there have been more than 30 million COVID-19 cases in the United States. Nationwide, more than 58 million Americans have been fully vaccinated, data from Johns Hopkins shows. That's nearly 18 percent of the population.

This story contains original reporting by Kara Seymour.

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