The number of New Jerseyans in the hospital with COVID-19 — and, more importantly, the number of those in intensive care and/or on ventilators — continues to make a remarkable drop.
On Sunday, Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Twitter and on the state’s COVID-19 information page that the number of patients hospitalized has dropped to 2,755.
How significant a drop is that? Consider that, last Sunday, the state reported 3,511 in hospitals and, two weeks ago, reported 4,195. That’s a drop of more than 34% in two weeks. And a huge drop from April 14, when a high of 8,084 was reported.
The numbers are as striking for those in intensive/critical care and on ventilators.
Those in intensive/critical care dropped to 719, a 43% drop from two weeks ago, when the total was at 1,255. The high came April 15, when there 2,026 such patients.
And the number of patients on ventilators dropped to 540 — or approximately 44% from two weeks ago, when it was at 970. The high, on April 14, was 1,705, a time the state feared the total could jump to as high as 2,500.
Murphy has repeatedly said these three numbers are key metrics when it comes to reopening the state.
NEW: NJ has 965 new confirmed positive cases of #COVID19, pushing our total to 155,092. Of those cases:
➡️2,755 are in hospitals
➡️719 are in critical or intensive care
➡️540 are on ventilatorsSadly, we’ve lost 16 more New Jerseyans, pushing our total to 11,144 lives lost. pic.twitter.com/VCgilzl2kx
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) May 25, 2020
The number of new cases and fatalities also continues to drop.
There were 2,473 cases reported over the three-day weekend, bringing the state total to 155,092. And there were 163 additional fatalities, brining the total to 11,144.
Those three-day totals are less than the one-day totals from a month ago. On April 24, the state had 3,457 new cases and 249 fatalities.