New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy speaks at a press conference after touring the Covid-19 vaccination center at the New Jersey Convention and Exposition Center in Edison, New Jersey on January 15, 2021.
Mark Kauzlarich | Bloomberg | Getty Images
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy on Monday issued a warning to residents who have not received the Covid-19 vaccine advising them to register for their first doses as hospital stays and ventilator use increase across the state .
While Covid cases seem to be leveling off in New Jersey, Murphy said hospital admissions, intensive care room and ventilator use are increasing across the state. New cases in New Jersey rose 5% from a week ago to a seven-day average of 2,003 cases on Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Nearly 1,100 people are being hospitalized in New Jersey for Covid, 209 of them in intensive care, according to federal and state data. Murphy said 51% of Covid ICU patients are on ventilators. However, Murphy also said the number of ventilators used nationwide had increased by about 25% in the past week, adding that hospital admissions had increased more than 10% since Aug. 23.
“These numbers should be a wake-up call to the threat that the Delta variant poses predominantly to the unvaccinated,” Murphy said.
Despite the surge in ventilation use, New Jersey has the lowest percentage of ICU beds used for Covid in the country, Murphy said. Data from the Department of Health and Welfare shows that less than 7% of ICU beds in the state are occupied by Covid patients, compared to 30.5% of ICU beds occupied by Covid patients nationwide.
Murphy said just over 12,200 of New Jersey’s nearly 5.2 million fully vaccinated residents have seen groundbreaking Covid cases. He added that only 307 fully vaccinated people in New Jersey had to be hospitalized for their symptoms.
“If you’re on the fence, look at these numbers,” Murphy said. “There is no reason to leave your health and that of your family to chance. The vaccines are working.”
With the Delta variant causing spikes in cases, Murphy has implemented a series of mask and vaccine measures aimed at containing the spread of the virus in the community. The governor recommended that residents of the state wear masks in high-risk indoor areas on July 28. The following week, he ordered Covid tests for selected government employees who are not vaccinated.
Murphy also announced on Aug. 6 that all staff and students at New Jersey schools must adhere to an indoor mask mandate at the start of the school year. Speaking at the briefing on Monday, he said that all school districts would have free access to a supply of around 6 million KN95 and surgical masks, plus an additional 500,000 masks for children.