No COVID Deaths In NJ Hospitals For First Time In 11 Months

NEW JERSEY — For the first time in 11 months, New Jersey reported a day of no COVID-19 deaths in hospitals on Thursday. The last time there were no hospital deaths reported in New Jersey was on July 30, 2020.

"There’s only one way to make sure we have more days like yesterday," said Gov. Phil Murphy. "Get vaccinated."

Murphy made the announcement a week after the state reached a six-month goal of getting 4.7 million people fully vaccinated. The New Jersey Department of Health has logged 4.86 million people fully inoculated as of Friday morning. The state is also on the verge of passing a six-month goal of getting 70 percent of all adults — also 4.7 million people — fully vaccinated, Murphy said Wednesday.

Although New Jersey has reached certain benchmarks for minimizing the spread and ended the year-plus state of emergency, state officials have made many indications that COVID-mitigation efforts will continue in the months to come.

Not everywhere in the Garden State has reached the 70-percent benchmark, so the state will try a new approach. Government employees and volunteers with Murphy's administration will knock on the doors of people who live in towns where fewer than 70 percent of adults have received their first doses. See your town's vaccination rate here.

This week, Murphy said Corps workers will be knocking on front doors in the following towns: Jersey City, Bayonne, North Bergen, West New York, Hoboken, Union City, Passaic, Paterson, Newark, East Orange, Irvington, Perth Amboy, New Brunswick, Piscataway, Old Bridge, Woodbridge, Camden, Gloucester, Vineland, Trenton, Atlantic City, Howell, Middletown, Lakewood, Toms River, Brick and Jackson.

The state will add additional towns, according to a spokesperson for the state health department.

Officials have labeled New Jersey's overall level of COVID-19 risk as "moderate." Most counties in North and Central Jersey are still showing moderate levels of COVID-19 activity, according to the latest weekly report. Ten counties in South and Central Jersey show "low" risk, based off standards such as positivity and case rates.

But meanwhile, hospitalizations across the state continue to drop, going from 2,294 patients April 1 to 302 on Thursday. Only 28 people are on ventilators, compared to 230 on April 1.

"First of all, our numbers are so low because our vaccination numbers continue to grow," Murphy said Wednesday. "And secondly, all of these numbers on the screen (hospitalization totals) reflect individuals who are almost exclusively if not exclusively non-vaccinated."

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