It just doesn’t seem to go away. A new COVID-19 variant is now spiking in the Garden State with hospitalizations on the rise. Not good news.
According to state health officials, hospitalizations surpassed 1,000 from the virus for the first time since February. BA.5 — an omicron sub-variant — continues to demonstrate an increased ability to avoid immunity as compared to prior strains. This has led to fears of a summer COVID wave.
As of yesterday, according to the New Jersey Department of Health, there were 1,013 hospital patients with confirmed or suspected COVID cases. That’s the highest total since February 20, when last winter’s omicron surge waned.
The current numbers are far less from the worst period of the omicron wave in New Jersey. The peak period was on January 11 when hospitalizations stood at 6,089 COVID cases in New Jersey.
The Centers For Disease Control says that BA.5 became New Jersey’s most dominant COVID strain early this month.
The bottom line is, we still need to be vigilant and aware of our surroundings. We do not want New Jersey to fall back into a COVID hotspot as the summer moves along.
