N.J. Confirmed Deaths From New Coronavirus Climb 51% to 537

(Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said pop-up hospitals opening in the state are coming “not a moment too soon,” as he reported an additional 3,489 positive test results, for a statewide total of 25,590.

Murphy reported an additional 182 deaths from the new coronavirus, increasing the one-day total by more than 50% to a cumulative 537. Among the new deaths, nearly half were at least 80 years old and more than a third had underlying conditions.

Of 56,915 tests conducted in New Jersey, about 41% were positive, according to state officials. But Murphy pointed out that only people with symptoms are getting tested, so the results are “not an average slice of the current state of the state.” Judith Persichilli, the state health commissioner, said wait times for results are “10, 12, 14 days.”

“The labs are overwhelmed at this point,” she said.

Murphy said the state is about a week from knowing whether any slowing effect has come from its strictest steps, including closing nonessential businesses and ordering people to stay at home, put into place March 21.

Earlier on Thursday, the governor and U.S. Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey toured a field hospital at the Meadowlands Exposition Center in Secaucus, the first of at least three pop-up stations in New Jersey that are expected to provide 1,000 additional beds. The Secaucus site is expected to begin admitting patients next week, with sites in Edison and Atlantic City to follow.

Persichilli said officials “don’t have hospitalization rates” because those data are culled from discharge information. She said when the state receives the figures, they will be made available.

Hackensack Meridian Health, which has 17 hospitals, saw a spike in the number of deaths but a flattening of the rate of new Covid-19 admissions, according to Daniel Varga, Hackensack’s chief physician executive.

“This week, we’ve seen a much lower rate of increase,” Varga said. “We’re averaging maybe 7% a day over the course of this week. But that’s way better than last week, when we rose almost 150% over the course of the week.”

Many hospitals have seen a surge of new cases followed by a plateau and then a new increase, he said.

“Some people have seen the plateau extend and then start to climb,” Varga said. “We’re knocking on wood every day that this is actually reflective of the mitigating activities actually starting to decrease the overall volume.”

Hackensack Meridian had about 1,800 hospital cases, with about two thirds confirmed to have Covid, Varga said. Of those, 410 were on ventilators, including some on modified sleep therapy devices, anesthesia machines and portable ventilators.

A total of 325 people have died in Hackensack’s hospitals, or nearly 61% of the deaths that Murphy reported. On March 28, Varga reported 90 deaths.

The system’s flagship hospital, Hackensack University Medical Center, had more than 400 Covid patients, including about 350 who tested positive.

On Thursday, Murphy also signed an executive order to commandeer supplies for hospitals, including masks and ventilators, from health-care facilities that aren’t operating. The state has been taking inventory of such equipment in recent days.

The governor appealed for donations of more personal-protection equipment for first responders and medical workers.

“In a perfect world, I’d love to be South Korea,” Murphy said of that government’s massive response to the virus with equipment and personnel.

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