NJ Health Commissioner Hopes COVID Surge in NJ Peaks By Month's End

On Monday, New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said she hopes the latest COVID-19 Omicron surge will peak in late January or early February, though she cautioned predictions are not an exact science.

Persichilli said during Governor Phil Murphy’s press conference, the state expects to see 20,000 to 30,000 daily cases for the month of January. She added that the models change daily, but on average last week, more than 5,000 New Jersey residents were hospitalized on any given day.  That’s the highest number of individuals hospitalized since May 2020.

Meanwhile, a variant discovered last week in Cyprus which combines Delta and Omicron has been dubbed deltacron.  Leondios Kostrikis, a professor of biological sciences at the University of Cyprus and the head of the Laboratory of Biotechnology and Molecular Virology, says, “We will see in the future if this strain is more pathological or more contagious or if it will prevail” over delta and omicron, but his personal belief is that “this strain will also be displaced by the highly contagious omicron variant.”

Yesterday, Governor Murphy said nearly 75 percent of New Jersey residents are fully vaccinated; of these, 46.33 percent have received a booster shot. Murphy added unvaccinated people make up a large number of hospitalized residents.