17K COVID Cases In NJ In 1 Week As Fauci Declares Pandemic Phase Over
NEW JERSEY — New Jersey's COVID-19 case numbers continue to climb, with officials confirming about 17,000 cases in the past week. The virus continues to pose a threat, but Dr. Anthony Fauci insists the United States is "out of the pandemic phase."
Almost all pandemic restrictions are gone, as Gov. Phil Murphy declared March 4 a transition from a pandemic to an endemic phase.
"As the coronavirus moves from pandemic to endemic and as we transition away from crisis management to a more normal way of life, it is the right time," Murphy said at his final coronavirus news briefing. "We're ready to move forward and not live our lives in fear." Read more: NJ COVID Emergency Shifts To 'Endemic': What That Means For You
Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, holds similar views that the United States is ready to transition away from pandemic life.
“We’re really in a transitional phase, from a deceleration of the numbers into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity,” Fauci told The Washington Post.
But it remains difficult to predict the virus's future, especially when it comes to how significant waves will impact life in New Jersey. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention define endemic as "the constant presence and/or usual prevalence of a disease or infectious agent in a population within a geographic area."
The federal government renewed the declaration of a public-health emergency April 12. The decision came after Congress failed to include the $22.5 billion the White House requested in March's spending package that would have made COVID vaccines, tests and certain treatments free for uninsured people for another year. The emergency declaration made them free again for at least three more months.
New Jersey's COVID case totals have trickled upward in the past two months — a pattern not seen last April, when case totals decreased 58 percent by the end of the month and continued declining into the summer, according to federal data. The state exceeded 2,500 new cases Thursday for the first time since mid-February, according to the New Jersey Department of Health.
Experts, including Fauci, believe case totals now represent undercounts because of the prevalence of at-home testing, from which positive tests don't get reported to health agencies.
"There are many people, people who I know myself, friends and others, who get infected, who do an antigen test, don't get many symptoms, but don't report it to anyone," Fauci told PBS NewsHour. "So, the fact is, there are infections that are not getting centrally reported. So I do believe that there's an undercount. We should do better than that."
The CDC reported 60 COVID deaths for New Jersey in the past week, but hospital capacities continue to hold steady. The state had 470 patients in hospitals with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Thursday — 110 more than a month ago but far fewer than the total of 6,089 on Jan. 11, in the midst of the omicron wave.
But even when New Jersey officials discussed transitioning to an endemic phase, State Epidemiologist Dr. Christina Tan said defining that continues to be a "work in progress."
"The concept of living with the virus encompasses that ongoing need for us to take the personal responsibility of understanding our risk ... and taking the measures to protect our health," Tan said.
17K COVID Cases In NJ In 1 Week As Fauci Declares Pandemic Phase Over originally appeared on the Wayne Patch
