Right on the heels of neighboring New York, New Jersey too is combating a spike in cases with daily infections close to reaching an 11-month high.
New Jersey reported 6,533 new lab-confirmed cases Sunday, giving the Garden State its second-highest day of positive infections and a fourth day above 6,200. The latest single-day report is an increase of more than 85% over last Sunday.
Hospitalizations are on the rise too, up 14% in a week to levels last recorded in April.
On the latest day for which data was available, the state said about one in every eight COVID tests statewide came back positive -- again, back to April levels.
"This pandemic, and I say this with the heaviest of hearts, is going to get worse before it gets better," Gov. Phil Murphy said. "My fear is we're going to get back to capacity limits in some form or another."
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Omicron Variant: The Latest
Around the state, impacts are growing. Princeton University this week moved finals online as cases on campus increased.
The university's rolling seven-day average of daily positive tests more than doubled from Dec. 10 to Dec. 15.
The CDC has said that the fast-spreading, highly contagious omicron variant of COVID-19 is being detected in New York and New Jersey at a rate about 4x the rest of the country.
In Hoboken, Mayor Ravi Bhalla made it required for anyone participating in the annual SantaCon bar crawl to be fully vaccinated, and have proof in order to enter bars.
