12 NJ Counties With Highest Case, Fatality Rates Amid COVID: Feds

NEW JERSEY — The latest State Profile Report released by federal officials this week has identified the 12 counties in New Jersey with the highest COVID death and case rates while indicating that the's disease transmission is still at a "high" level.

The report identifies all of the state's 21 counties as being in the red, or "high," zone for community transmission. Other levels are orange, or "substantial" transmission; yellow, or "moderate; and blue, or "low."

The weekly State Profile Report, made in collaboration with the White House and other federal agencies, measures COVID-19 risk through metrics such as new cases per 100,000 people, percent changes in new cases and positivity rate. The report was previously released by the White House Coronavirus Task Force under the Trump administration.

The new report and others that painted a not-so-rosy picture of New Jersey's position were issued as Gov. Phil Murphy extended the public health emergency for another 30 days, citing COVID-19's presence as still a "threat" in the state. Read more: NJ Extends COVID Public Health Emergency, Citing Ongoing 'Threat'

Murphy said the ongoing proliferation of faster-spreading and potentially more harmful variants necessitated the need to continuing the public health emergency.

"Our vaccination program is expanding vigorously and quickly, but COVID-19 remains a threat to New Jerseyans," said Murphy. "As we move to extend vaccine eligibility to all residents of our state, the need for all available resources could not be more important."

In the federal report, 12 counties were identified as having a rate of 2.0 to 4.9 deaths per 100,000 people between April 2nd and 8th:

• Atlantic
• Cape May
• Cumberland
• Essex
• Gloucester
• Hudson
• Monmouth
• Morris
• Passaic
• Ocean
• Sussex
• Union

The news from the reports isn't all bad.

Beginning with the reports released in March, the federal government no longer provides "county and metro alerts" that had shown a declining number of New Jersey counties suffering from the worst effects of the coronavirus outbreak. Now the government is basing its alerts on community transmission or spread.

Also, since the task force's previous weekly report, the coronavirus risk rose in New Jersey. The number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 fell by 14 percent.

These are the top 12 counties based on the number of new cases in the last three weeks:

• Bergen
• Essex
• Middlesex
• Hudson
• Monmouth
• Ocean
• Passaic
• Union
• Morris
• Camden
• Burlington
• Somerset

The latest federal report shows a 0.8 percent decrease in the test positivity rate. The state's test positivity rate stands at 9.4 as of Tuesday, the report says, although that number directly contradicts the state's figure of 11.04 percent. The state's number had increased by 3 percent over the weekend.

Coronavirus-related hospitalizations in New Jersey, however, are up. The federal report notes there were 3,236 new hospitalizations for the seven-day period ending April 7. That's a 1 percent increase from the previous seven-day period.

Under the Trump administration, these reports were not made public. Instead, they were obtained by The Center for Public Integrity.

After months of being hidden from public view, weekly reports sent to New Jersey by the White House coronavirus response team have a new, publicly accessible home.

Cyrus Shahpar, COVID-19 data director for the Biden administration, announced the move in a tweet in January.

"First post: We are now sharing previously hidden weekly COVID-19 state profile reports with the public," Shahpar tweeted.

The release of the weekly state reports is the latest move by the Biden administration, officials said, to bring more transparency back to the White House.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, also said Americans should expect a "transparent, open and honest" response to the coronavirus under Biden.

The latest New Jersey report does not include a summary or recommendations that are typically provided by the task force.

With reporting by Kara Seymour