Hoboken Announces 2 Covid Deaths, Warns Of 'Virulent' Variants

HOBOKEN, NJ — Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla sent out an alert Saturday night noting two more coronavirus deaths in the city, one recent and one from February that was recently reported. He also had a warning.

"Unfortunately, we continue to see an increase in cases both in Hoboken and throughout the state of New Jersey," Bhalla wrote. "I got off the phone earlier with a resident who lost her mother, and [she] was advised that according to ICU staff, certain new strains of the virus are very aggressive and virulent."

Experts have said they believe the three vaccines being used in the U.S. provide some protection against the variants, but cannot be sure how much. (One "New York variant" was only identified last month.)

Bhalla urged residents to continue precautions about masks, gatherings, travel, and more.

Fatalities in Hoboken

Bhalla said, "I am saddened to report two fatalities, which include a female in her early 50s from February, and a recent passing of a male in his late 70s." The death toll is now 49 from the virus in Hoboken.

From March 20 through this past Friday (March 26), 193 people in town tested positive, Bhalla said.

The previous week, the count was 163. The week before, the count was 188.

Bhalla said there have been 4,250 known, confirmed cases and 3,307 confirmed recoveries in the mile-square city.

More vaccines this coming week

Bhalla also said that besides getting 1,170 more Pfizer vaccines for Hoboken residents last week, the city will get 1,170 more this coming week. Hudson County had had the lowest percentage of people vaccinated out of 21 counties. READ MORE: Menendez Asks For More Vaccines For Hudson County

"Governor [Phil] Murphy indicated that in the weeks to come, the state is anticipated to receive a significant increase in vaccine supply from the federal government" which could mean more local pharmacies and medical practices distributing it, Bhalla said.

Help for getting a test or a vaccine

• To see the rest of Bhalla's message, with information about vaccines, vaccinating homebound seniors, coronavirus testing, CDC guidelines, local volunteers, and more, click here.
• To see Patch's updated list from Friday of where to get vaccines in Hudson County, and who will soon be eligible, click: Hudson County Covid Vaccine Site Updates: New Groups Eligible

State numbers on hospitalizations, variants

So what are current trends in deaths, hospitalizations, and variants in New Jersey?

• In New Jersey on Tuesday, it was announced that there were 61 new coronavirus deaths confirmed since the day before. That makes 21,727 confirmed deaths in the state.
• While the daily fatality rate has declined since the winter holidays, it never returned to the level it was at last August and September, before the second wave in New Jersey. There were a total of only two coronavirus fatalities reported statewide from Sept. 7 to Sept. 8.
• On April 30, 2020, the one-day death toll in New Jersey reached an all-time high of 460 residents in 24 hours.
• There are presently 1,992 patients hospitalized with the virus, 428 of those in critical care, 50.7 percent of those on ventilators. There are 400 reports in the state of new variants.

As of Saturday, more than 548,000 Americans had died of coronavirus. (You can see which states had the highest death toll in the past week on this CDC map.)

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