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.
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.)
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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.
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.
