In the last two weeks, none of New Jersey’s COVID-19 deaths were among fully vaccinated people, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday.
But nearly 20% of COVID-positive test results from July 20-26 were among the fully vaccinated, he said.
“You can see here that the vaccines are still proving themselves highly effective and well more than 99% of those who have received them are finding protection from contracting the virus, from hospitalization and from a COVID-related death,” Murphy said at his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton.
Data from July 20-26 found 4,332 new positive cases, with 3,529, or 81.5% of new cases, accounting for unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated people, Murphy said. That means 18.5% of positive tests were among the fully vaccinated.
Despite the recent uptick, in all, only 0.14% of positive COVID tests have been among fully vaccinated people, he said.
Of the 378 new COVID-positive hospitalizations statewide for those dates, 97%, or 367 of 378, were people who were either unvaccinated or not yet fully vaccinated, he said.
During that same time, there were 21 COVID-related deaths, he said.
“Every single one of them was someone who was either unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated. That’s the second week in a row when we did not have one death from among the fully vaccinated,” Murphy said.
In all, 50 people, or 0.001% of fully vaccinated people in New Jersey, have died of COVID through July 26, officials said.
Since the start of the pandemic, only 0.004% of fully vaccinated people, or 212 in all, needed hospitalization, the governor said.
“Vaccination is the best weapon that we have against this unrelenting virus,” Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said.
Health officials said hospitalizations and deaths are lower than at other times during the pandemic because of the state’s relatively high vaccination rate. More than 5.36 million people who live, work, or study in New Jersey have been fully vaccinated, according to state data. About 4 million residents remain unvaccinated.
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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.