All But One NJ County Now Out Of COVID-19 'Red Zone': Feds

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey made some progress in managing the coronavirus. For the third straight week, all of the Garden State except Atlantic County is out of the "red zone," according to federal officials.

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.

Atlantic County remains in the red zone, which means its data from the last three weeks indicates a greater overall coronavirus risk. Bergen, Ocean, Hudson, Monmouth and Passaic Counties stayed in the "orange zone."

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The "yellow zone," which carries a lower risk than orange zones, includes the following counties: Essex, Middlesex, Union, Morris, Camden, Somerset, Gloucester, Sussex, Hunterdon, Warren and Salem.

The federal report, released Wednesday, shows which parts of New Jersey have a higher positivity rate and amount of cases per 100,000 people:

New Jersey has seen some progress since mid-February. The Feb. 14 report showed three New Jersey counties in the red zone (Ocean, Passaic and Atlantic) and seven in the orange zone (Bergen, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Hudson, Morris and Warren).

The developments have coincided with state officials reducing coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks. For instance, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Feb. 22 that houses of worship could expand from 35 to 50 percent capacity. Murphy also suggested Feb. 25 that indoor-dining capacity will increase to 50 percent "sooner than later."

The New Jersey Department of Health has reported the following since the pandemic began:

• 712,585 confirmed cases
• 90,084 probable cases
• 21,094 confirmed deaths
• 2,394 probable deaths

New daily cases peaked at nearly 7,000 per day in mid-January but gradually declined since then. Since March began, new daily cases have fluctuated between 2,600 and 3,000. Coronavirus hospitalizations have also reduced from 3,873 on Dec. 22 to 1,881 as of Thursday.

See the full weekly report.