As COVID hospitalizations continue to rise in New Jersey, ventilator use is up 71%

The number of hospitalized people with COVID-19 in New Jersey rose by 225 Monday night to 6,036, after an overnight adjustment to Sunday's numbers by the state Health Department due to a reporting error.

That represents a 28% increase in COVID hospitalizations since Jan. 2. And the number of people seriously ill needing a ventilator rose to 500 Monday — a 71% jump in that period. The number in intensive care also rose, to 892, a 39% increase since Jan. 2.

“In the past week, we’ve seen a growing number of COVID patients on ventilators," said Cathleen Bennett, president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association. "Today, about 8 percent of COVID patients are on ventilators and we still have about 65 percent of all vents free for use.

"In reports from some of the state’s hospitals, a profile of ventilator patients is beginning to emerge, with a significant number unvaccinated against COVID, and many with morbid obesity and vascular conditions as complicating, co-occurring conditions," Bennett said.

While rising steeply, the number of patients on ventilators still remains far below what it was during the first wave of the pandemic in late April of 2020, when more than 1,300 ventilators were in use.

On Tuesday Gov. Phil Murphy announced an additional 142 New Jerseyans have died from COVID, bringing the total number of confirmed and probable deaths to 29,634 since the pandemic began 22 months ago.

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The state also announced an additional 21,483 new COVID infections confirmed through PCR tests and 4,391 through antigen tests. That marks 14 straight days with the daily new case count above 20,000. Persichilli said they expect the daily case count to remain in the 20,000 to 30,000 range through the rest of the month. Cases usually start declining seven to 14 days before hospitalizations start to decline.

Current state modeling projects that hospitalizations will peak during the current wave at about 8,000 by the end of the third week of January, and could stay at high levels for several weeks before starting to decline in early February, state Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said Monday.

Many hospitalized patients who have COVID were admitted to the hospital because of other medical conditions. Persichilli said that about 49% are hospitalized primarily because of their COVID diagnosis. The rest were hospitalized for other reasons, and then tested positive for COVID in the hospital.

But those with COVID who are hospitalized for other illnesses still pose a complication for hospitals, since they must be isolated in COVID-only parts of the hospital, away from other patients. In addition, COVID becomes a condition that could exacerbate their principal diagnosis, Persichilli said.

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The number of people with new infections far exceeds the number of people getting booster shots in New Jersey, which could protect against new infections. For example, Murphy said on Monday that about 168,000 people got boosters last week, while the total who tested positive last week was 229,895.

Even as they must deal with growing numbers of patients, hospitals are also grappling with serious staff depletions due to COVID. On Monday, there were 254 new infections among staff, who must then isolate at home for five days. That comes on the heels of 353 new cases Sunday, and 475, 605 and 862 new cases in the previous days.

Hardest hit over the past 30 days has been University Hospital in Newark, with 683 workers infected, followed by St. Joseph's University Medical Center in Paterson with 597, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick with 589, Hackensack University Medical Center with 582, St. Francis Medical Center in Trenton with 457, Morristown Medical Center with 426 and Bergen New Bridge Medical Center in Paramus with 390.

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Hospitals have been shifting administrators into support roles to adjust, and they have also postponed non-emergency surgeries. The state also requested strike teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help.

St. Joseph’s Wayne Medical Center expects to get 13 hospital beds from the state Office of Emergency Management, as part of its preparations for a surge in patients due to the omicron variant. “They aren’t needed, as of yet,” said Kristen Agnes, a spokeswoman for St. Joseph’s Health.

Making things somewhat easier is the fact that during the current wave, driven in part by the omicron variant, patients have been improving more quickly and staying for shorter periods than during earlier waves of the pandemic.

But patients needing the most intensive care remain far and away those who are unvaccinated. Persichilli said that of those currently hospitalized, 68% are not vaccinated or are only partially vaccinated, and 32% are fully vaccinated.

Long term care facilities are also facing a shortage of staff as more call in sick from COVID. On Monday, there were active outbreaks of COVID at 527 long term care facilities statewide, with 7,054 infections among residents and 10,128 infected staff.

On Monday, 150 National Guard personnel started to assist staff in more than a dozen nursing homes, helping with basic tasks.

The worst outbreak has been at Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, formerly Andover Subacute II, in Sussex County, with 213 cases among residents, 119 cases among staff and three deaths among residents.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ COVID cases with hospitalization rise, plus ventilator use up 71%