NJ Warns Of New COVID Surge, Restrictions As Cases Hit New High

NEW JERSEY — State officials are warning that New Jersey should expect a "predictive surge" in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations very soon now that the Garden State once again has hit its highest, single-day total of new coronavirus cases.

Gov. Phil Murphy suggested that New Jersey may have to impose additional restrictions if the number of hospitalizations continues to rise. But he emphasized on Thursday during a FOX29 interview that New Jersey is hoping to stem the rise in cases and hospitalizations by distributing the vaccine.

"I want to get shots in people's arms," he said, calling on the federal government to step up its work in getting the vaccine to people. "The constraint is on supply. We need the supplies." Read more: NJ Expands COVID Vaccine To 65 & Older, Those With Medical Issues

State officials reported that New Jersey has 3,726 hospitalizations, one of the highest numbers since last spring. The total included 648 patients in intensive care units and 452 ventilators in use.

Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said her department is meeting weekly with hospital officials and "we are preparing for the predictive surge that may start as early as next week into the middle of February."

"We will have PPE. We will have ventilators," she said during a Wednesday news conference. "What we will not have is the appropriate level of staffing that people are familiar with, conventional staffing."

Persichilli made the announcement as Murphy shared updates on the state’s COVID-19 numbers during the news conference, noting that New Jersey has seen a cumulative total of 543,974 positive PCR tests for the virus, including 6,922 new positive tests. The state also saw 1,265 new positive antigen tests.

“I believe that is a single-day record,” Murphy said about the new positive tests.

Another 5,967 cases were reported on Thursday.

Persichilli said her department will be working with hospitals "if they need to progress to what we call contingency staffing, and hopefully never crisis staffing."

Persichilli said if the state's predictive modelling is accurate, New Jersey could see a moderate scenario for 4,500 and high scenario of more than 6,000 hospitalizations.

"That would be tough. Over 6,000 would be tough," she said.

Murphy said "at that point, we're going to have pull some levers that we're not pulling at the moment," suggesting that New Jersey may have to impose some new restrictions.

One of the restrictions could involve elective surgeries.

"3,700 ... is up by the way, it's been up for a few days in a row now, but still well below the numbers we saw in the spring and the ICU numbers at 600 and something," Murphy said.

"I don't want folks to think that that's the capacity," he added. "In other words, those numbers in the spring already factored in the reality that there were no elective surgeries, by example."

Last month, state officials warned that New Jersey could see upwards of 12,000 cases of the coronavirus very soon if it doesn't get control of the spread of the virus, and hospitalization rates could spike to their highest levels since the spring. Read more: Gov. Murphy Now Says NJ Daily COVID Cases Could Double To 12K

Other indicators point toward a rocky road ahead, Murphy continued. According to the governor:

• The positivity rate for all PCR tests recorded on Jan. 9 was 13.53 percent. The statewide rate of transmission is 1.10.
• There were 95 new confirmed deaths on Wednesday linked to COVID-19, bringing the state’s total up to 18,070, with another 2,091 “probable” deaths.

Earlier on Wesdnesday, Murphy announced that two new categories of people qualify for a COVID-19 vaccination in New Jersey: people over the age of 65, and between the ages 16-64 with medical conditions that increase the risk of severe illness from the virus.

This article contains reporting by Tom Davis, Patch staff

Send feedback and correction requests to eric.kiefer@patch.com. Learn more about posting announcements or events to your local Patch site. Sign up for Patch email newsletters.