Team coverage of the fight against the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Chris Glorioso and Brian Thompson report.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in New Jersey are up 67% in a week, and the relentless omicron surge is only getting worse, with a new single-day case record Wednesday.
The state reported 31,391 new positive PCR tests, the first time New Jersey has topped 30,000 confirmed cases in a single day.
It's the eighth straight day the state has reported 20,000 or more positive tests; two weeks ago, New Jersey had never exceeded 7,000 in a single day.
Watch NBC 4 free wherever you are

As of Tuesday 5,464 people were hospitalized with COVID in the state -- the highest since May 2, 2020 and up almost 2,200 people in just a week. (Hospital data is a day in arrears on the state's dashboard.)
The state is now well past the surge it saw in the winter of 2020/21, and is rapidly approaching the pandemic-era high of just over 8,000 cases in April 2020.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox with NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.

Last week the chief physician executive at Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey's largest hospital network, told News 4 New York the state would eclipse that mark by mid-January, and that the network was preparing to implement "crisis standards of care." On Monday, Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said she'd asked FEMA to send reinforcements for depleted hospital staffs.