NJ’s COVID-19 Numbers Paint a Cautiously Optimistic Picture

By Jim Pytell, Assistant Editor On Jul 15, 2020

At today’s coronavirus press briefing, Gov. Phil Murphy revealed that New Jersey has one of the lowest COVID-19 positivity rates in the country at 2.13%.

“It speaks to our ability to meet our needs for testing on a daily basis and also the great personal responsibility that all of you have taken,” Murphy said.

New Jersey’s rate of virus reproduction also remains below 1.0, at 0.93, which means that every new case of COVID-19 is leading to less than one additional case. While this figure has fluctuated around 1.0 since April, it hasn’t come close to it’s peak of 5.31 in mid-March. 

New Jersey’s number of new hospitalizations due to the virus is also down 31% since June 30, with patients in intensive care down 26% and those on ventilators down 56% since the same date. There are a total of 923 people hospitalized overall in the state due to COVID-19.

“The numbers in our hospitals continue to trend in the right direction,” Murphy said. “This is, by all measures, a good sign. [However,] the increasing rate of spread of this disease among younger residents, those who may be asymptomatic, or whose illness may not proceed to where they need to be hospitalized, remains troubling.”

Murphy reiterated the need to remain vigilant, and while New Jersey ranks 44th in the nation in terms of the number of new COVID-19 cases per day, it ranks 19th in the number of patients in the hospital, and, perhaps more troubling, 3rd in the nation in the total number of deaths per day (43 deaths per day).

Overall, New Jersey has reported a total of 176,278 positive COVID-19 cases and 13,660 deaths due to the virus.

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